Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich defended Donald Trump’s attacks against former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Wednesday night, telling a crowd of Log Cabin Republicans that “you’re not supposed to gain 60 pounds during the year that you’re Miss Universe.”

Ms. Machado, a newly naturalized U.S. citizen who has come out in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, has claimed Mr. Trump, former owner of the Miss Universe Organization, called her “Miss Piggy” when she gained weight after her 1996 pageant win.

Mrs. Clinton brought up Mr. Trump’s comments about Ms. Machado toward the end of Monday’s presidential debate, saying the business mogul referred to the Venezuela-born beauty contestant as “Miss Housekeeping.”

“One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest — he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them — and he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy,’ then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she was Latina,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado, and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”

The Clinton campaign later released an ad featuring Ms. Machado talking about how Mr. Trump insulted her.

Mr. Trump later doubled down on his criticism of Ms. Machado, telling “Fox & Friends” Tuesday that she became a “real problem” after gaining “a massive amount of weight” following her victory.

“I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight,” the Republican told Bill O’Reilly in a pre-taped interview that aired Wednesday night, Politico reported.

At Wednesday night’s “Spirit of Lincoln” dinner in downtown Washington, D.C., Mr. Gingrich blasted the “Machado Trap,” which he said was “set up for three or four months” ago by the Clinton campaign, The Daily Mail reported.

“Every element of the news media, including part of Fox, has been dedicated for two days to suppressing Donald Trump,” he said. “News media were lined up to run articles the second Hillary said something.”

Mr. Gingrich reassured Trump supporters in the crowd that this “deliberate” attack would blow over soon.

“By the end of the week, he’ll be ahead again,” he said, the Daily Mail reported.

Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri blasted Mr. Gingrich for criticizing Ms. Machado’s weight, tweeting, “I am sorry, I can’t get past this. Newt Gingrich is criticizing someone for their weight.”

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