Trump accused of walking into dressing room at 1997 teen beauty pageant

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Four contestants in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant have accused Donald Trump of walking into their dressing room while they were changing, BuzzFeed News reports.

One of the women called it "shocking" and "creepy," with another remembering Trump telling them, "Don't worry, ladies, I've seen it all before." Some of the girls in the room were as young as 15.

"When he started running for president, that is one of the first things I thought about: Oh, gross, this guy walked in on us in the pageant," one of the women who spoke to BuzzFeed News said. She added that the girls in the dressing room were "just scrambling to grab stuff ... whatever garments they had."

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Trump, who also owned Miss Universe and Miss USA, bragged to Howard Stern in 2005 that "I'll go backstage before a show ... You know, they're standing there with no clothes ... I sort of get away with things like that."

Eleven of the contestants from the 1997 pageant said they did not remember Trump entering the room, with some saying it wouldn't have been possible. "There was way too much security. If that was something he did, then everybody would have noticed," said Crystal Hughes, the former Miss Maine Teen USA.

The Trump campaign and organization did not respond to BuzzFeed News's requests for a comment.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.