A former Apprentice contestant has claimed she was kissed by Donald Trump during a job interview in 2005 – shortly after he married his wife Melania.

Jennifer Murphy, a contestant on the fourth season of the hit US reality show, said she had been invited to Mr Trump’s office for a job interview and he had kissed her on the lips as she was leaving.

The 37-year-old told Grazia magazine: “He walked me to the elevator, and I said goodbye. I was thinking ‘oh, he’s going to hug me’, but when he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch. I was like ‘oh kay’.

“I didn’t know how to act. I was just a little taken aback and probably turned red. And I then I get into the elevator and thought ‘huh, Donald Trump just kissed me on the lips.’”

“I think maybe in his mind he may have thought of me and maybe fantasised, or romantically, but I didn’t feel at the end of the day he would take action.

“I would hope that he would be true to his marriage, and I was also engaged at the time.”

The claims come as the Republican nominee is under mounting pressure after he was recorded boasting about groping women without their permission.

The recording made in 2005, unearthed by the Washington Post on Friday, heard Mr Trump saying: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.

Donald Trump is under fire as more allegations of his impropriety with women emerge (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Mr Trump says. “You can do anything… Grab ’em by the p****.”

He also described “moving very heavily on” a married woman who was later identified as TV presenter Nancy O’Dell – whom he allegedly tried to fire from hosting the Miss USA pageant two years later for being pregnant.

Now key Republican figures have distanced themselves from his presidential campaign, saying they can no longer endorse him.

House Speaker Paul Ryan stopped short of formally unendorsing him – like Indiana Governor Kelly Ayotte, who said she would write in a vote for Vice-Presidential candidate Mike Pence – but Mr Ryan did say he would focus his energies on the reelection of Republican members of Congress rather than the presidential race.

A survey found 25 per cent of the GOP’s top brass – including Congressmen and women and state senators – have abandoned Mr Trump.

Of the 31 Republican governors, 54 GOP senators and the 246 Republican members of the House, a full 87 were not endorsing Mr Trump’s candidacy as of Tuesday night, a USA Today poll found.

But, despite her experience, Ms Murphy said she would still vote for Mr Trump who she described as her “mentor”.

She said she met him in 2004 when she was taking part in the Miss USA pageant and he invited her to audition for The Apprentice.

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She was eventually fired sixth but Mr Trump gave her his business card and said he wanted to hire her but had to wait for the end of the show.

The former Miss Oregon said: “I don’t want him to ever feel I’m throwing him under the bus, because I’m not.

“I was surprised, but then it didn’t really bother me because I didn’t feel he was being degrading, or he was being dishonest to Melania.”