People writer says Donald Trump assaulted her while she was profiling his marriage

(Image credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images)

last updated 13 October 2016

Natasha Stoynoff covered the Donald Trump beat for People magazine in the early 2000s, and on Wednesday she became the fourth woman this week to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting her. Stoynoff attended Trump's wedding to Melania Knauss in January 2005, she recounts in a first-person essay in People, and in December 2005 she flew down to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to interview the couple for a first-wedding-anniversary feature story. After some discussion of how happy their first year of marriage had been, Stoynoff says, a very pregnant Melania went up to rest and Trump said he wanted to show the reporter a "tremendous" room. Stoynoff continued:

We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat. Now, I'm a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump's longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself. [People]

The butler said Melania was coming downstairs to resume the interview, Stoynoff said, and while they were waiting, Trump allegedly told her, "You know we're going to have an affair, don't you?" using, Stoynoff said, "the same confident tone he uses when he says he's going to make America great again." Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks says the situation Stoynoff describes "never happened." You can read Stoynoff's detailed account of what allegedly happened next and how it affected her at People.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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