



Bobby Bank / WireImage Donald Trump with winners of his beauty pageants in 2014.

UPDATE: After BuzzFeed News published this story, we heard from a fifth contestant who remembered Trump visiting the dressing room. Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant said Donald Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing. “I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” said Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA. Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.” Three other women, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting engulfed in a media firestorm, also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing. Two of them said the girls rushed to cover their bodies, with one calling it “shocking” and “creepy.” The third said she was clothed and introduced herself to Trump.

CBS / Via youtube.com Mariah Billado, Miss Vermont Teen USA, at the 1997 pageant.

Eleven of that year’s contestants reached by BuzzFeed News did not recall seeing Trump in the dressing room. Some said they do not believe he could have been there. Discussion of Trump entering the room arose among the women themselves last weekend in a private Facebook group after BuzzFeed News reported that a contestant in an adult pageant said Trump had walked into the changing room when “we were all naked.” The Facebook group is open only to some former contestants in the 1997 pageant, according to several women who are in it and who described the exchange about Trump to BuzzFeed News. Altogether, BuzzFeed News attempted to contact 49 of the 51 contestants at that pageant. Thirty-four declined to talk or could not be reached. Of the 15 women who were interviewed, none accused Trump of saying anything sexually explicit or of making physical contact in the dressing room. Ever since the release last week of a 2005 tape in which Trump boasted about grabbing women “by the pussy” and said he “did try and fuck” a married woman, his campaign has been reeling. Trump dismissed his comments on the tape as “locker room talk,” but it has put his treatment of women under intense focus. Trump, who owned the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants from 1996 until last year, has publicly bragged about invading beauty queen dressing rooms, calling it one of his prerogatives of ownership. “I’ll tell you the funniest is that I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed,” Trump told Howard Stern in recordings released Saturday by CNN. “No men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. ... ‘Is everyone OK?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody OK?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that.” Until now it was never alleged that this behavior extended to the teen pageant, in which contestants can be as old as 19 or as young as 14. The Trump campaign and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. The Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss Teen USA, declined to comment. The 1997 teen pageant — Trump’s first as owner — was held on South Padre Island, Texas. His daughter Ivanka Trump, then 15 years old, served as co-host.



CBS / Via youtube.com Ivanka Trump, co-host of the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant.