Donald Trump and Alicia Machado’s War of Words Over the Years

One of the results of last Monday’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has been a renewed focus on the latter’s alleged treatment of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. Secretary Clinton said, “He called this woman ‘Miss Piggy.’ Then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name.”

This story basically begins in 1996, so let’s take a look at what has transpired between the two over the course of 20 years. In 1996, Donald Trump bought the Miss Universe Organization from Madison Square Garden for $10 million. This was also the year that Machado, then 19 and representing her native country of Venezuela, was crowned Miss Universe. However, whatever good feeling came from that victory quickly disappeared.

After the pageant, in various reports, she said she gained somewhere between 10 and 20 pounds. Machado’s weight became a major news story, and Trump was front and center in the matter, often claiming that she gained more than 50 pounds. Talking to multiple press outlets, Trump said, “She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds and she went up to 170, so this is somebody who likes to eat.”

In January of 1997, Trump gathered reporters to watch Machado exercise with a trainer he had hired for her. Talking to reporters about Machado’s weight in front of her, he said, “Some people when they have pressure, eat too much. Like me. Like Alicia.”

While she might have appeared to been mostly smiles at that event, on Tuesday, Machado told CNN’s Anderson Cooper it was a terrible experience. “I had my self-esteem on the floor,” she said. “It was the most horrible moment [a] girl can live.”

Thanks to some digging by Buzzfeed, we know that In February of 1997, Trump called into Howard Stern to brag about her exercise and diet. “She gained about 55 pounds in a period of nine months,” he claimed. “She was like an eating machine. … I guess she ate a lot of everything.”

Machado was visibly annoyed about having this kind of scrutiny in a May 1997 interview with CBS This Morning. “I think that maybe had some problem with this, but I’m fine now, and I think 15 pounds [is nothing when you’re 20 years old],” she said.

Machado complained about that press event at the gym to the Washington Post in May 1997, saying, “I thought that was in very bad taste.” Trump, in his book The Art of the Comeback, wrote: “First, she wins. Second, she gains 50 pounds. Third, I urge the committee not to fire her. Fourth, I go to the gym with her, in a show of support. Final act: She trashes me in The Washington Post — after I stood by her the entire time.”

In a May 2016 interview with the New York Times, Machado said, “After that episode, I was sick — anorexia and bulimia for five years. Over the past 20 years, I’ve gone to a lot of psychologists to combat this.”

Cut to 2016. We know what Trump did over those 20 years. Machado had become a well-known telenovela actress, but the Miss Universe story had mostly laid dormant. Various press outlets brought it up over the course of Trump’s run for the White House, but it was the Clinton campaign’s focus on it that has made it a national story. Aside from the debate, they also ran an ad featuring Machado. “[Trump] was very overwhelming,” Machado said in a testimonial. “I was very scared of him. He’d yell at me all the time. He’d tell me, ‘You look ugly,’ or ‘You look fat.’ Sometimes he’d ‘play’ with me and say, ‘Hello, Miss Piggy,’ ‘Hello, Miss Housekeeping.’”

On the Tuesday following the debate, Trump brought up Machado on Fox and Friends. “She was the worst we ever had,” Trump complained. “The worst. The absolute worst. She was impossible. … She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem.”

Trump also said that the Clinton campaign was trying portray Machado as a Mother Teresa. On a recent Today program, Machado responded to that. “I know they will try to do distractions about my story,” she said presciently. Various stories painting the now 39-year-old in a negative light have come forth. The most prominent is a story from 1998, here described by Anderson Cooper in his interview on Tuesday with Machado: “You were accused of driving a getaway car from a murder scene,” Cooper said. “You were never charged with this. The judge in the case also said you threatened to kill him after he indicted your boyfriend for the attempted murder. I just want to give you a chance to address these reports that the Trump surrogates are talking about.” Waving her hand dismissively, Machado replied, “He can say whatever he wants to say. I don’t care.”

Trump, on Wednesday’s O’Reilly Factor, continued to speak poorly of Machado, contradicting her allegations that he threatened her job and claiming he barely knew her. “ saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight, and it is a beauty contest,” Trump said. “Say what you want, Bill. They know what they’re getting into. It’s a beauty contest. And I said don’t do that. Let her try and lose the weight. You can imagine? I end up in a position like this. So that’s the way it is. I really just don’t know her.”

So that’s where things mostly stand. Of course, Machado isn’t the only former female employee of Trump to complain about him. In May, The New York Times published a report based off interviews with dozens of women, complaining about his “unwelcome romantic advances” and “unending commentary on the female form.”

It’s likely the Trump campaign will continue to fight back against Machado’s allegations. As for Machado, she’ll fight back in at least one way. In August she celebrated becoming a U.S. citizen, writing on Instagram, “I’ll be Voting! All my power and my support [are] with my next President @hillaryclinton.”

Seth Meyers ‘Moderates’ the Clinton/Trump Debate:

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