The New York Times interviewed 50 women about how Trump treated them
The New York Times interviewed 50 people for the story, titled "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private," from employees of the Trump Organization, to former girlfriends, and Miss Universe contestants.
The interviews reveal a very complicated picture of Trump, who would simultaneously promote women to executive positions in his company while belittling their appearance and making unwanted sexual advances.
Here are some of the salacious details:
- Trump forced women to "try on" bathing suits during pool parties at the Mar-a-Lago: "He took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit," Rowanne Brewer Lane, a former model, told The New York Times. "I went into the bathroom and tried one on."When she came out, Brewer says that Trump paraded her around the party and told the crowd, "That is a stunning Trump girl isn't it?"
- When Trump purchased the Miss Universe pageant, he would personally "evaluate" the contestants: "We were told to put on our opening number outfits - they were nearly as revealing as our swimsuits - and line up for him onstage," Carrie Prejean, Miss California in 2009, told The New York Times. "Donald Trump walked out with his entourage and inspected us closer than any general ever inspected a platoon." Prejean said many of the girls found the exercise humiliating and ended up sobbing backstage.
- Trump would also make unwanted advances towards women: "He kissed me directly on the lips," Temple Taggart, Miss Utah in 1997 told The New York Times. "I thought, "Oh my God, gross." Taggart told the New York Times that she wasn't the only one who Trump kissed on the mouth. Trump was still married to Marla Maples at the time, though he denied to the New York Times ever kissing any "strangers" on the lips.
AP Photo/Richard DrewRepublican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and his wife Melania Trump, are interviewed by co-host Matt Lauer, third left, and Savannah Guthrie, right, on the NBC "Today" television program, in New York, Thursday, April 21, 2016.
Trump also made it clear that he prefered "pretty" women around him. When Barbara Res, a top Trump executive, gained weight after working with the real estate mogul for years, Trump would tease her, telling her that "she liked her candy," Res told The New York Times.
"It was him reminding me that I was overweight."
These instances seemed to be "fleeting, unimportant moments to him," according to the Times, and Trump categorically denied ever treating women with this much disrespect. But to many of the women involved, his behavior laft lasting, and often damaging impressions.
Still, others laud Trump for nurturing the careers of many "ambitious" women around him. Trump hired Barbara Res as his main construction manager - one of the top executive positions in a male-dominated industry - for the Trump Plaza casino, and went out of way to ensure that women who's "work ethic" he respected could remain at his organization.