(From left to right) Logan West, Donald Trump, Nana Meriwether and Olivia Culpo attend the Miss USA 2012 and Miss Universe 2012 photocall at Trump Tower on January 9, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Mack/FilmMagic)
A new report published by investigative journalist Michael Isikoff and Mother Jones’ David Corn claims President Donald Trump would dismiss Miss Universe contestants he thought were “too ethnic” or “too dark-skinned.”
The report, published as excerpts from Isikoff and Corn’s upcoming book “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” comes on the heels of a similar report accusing Trump of rigging the pageant to favor contestants from countries he had business deals with.
One former Miss Universe staffer told them Trump would routinely “make changes” to the list of finalists, tossing out women and replacing them with ones he preferred, particularly when “there were too many women of color” present. On occasion, he would also reject women who “snubbed his advances.”
“He often thought a woman was too ethnic or too dark-skinned,” another Miss Universe staffer recalled. “He had a particular type of woman he thought was a winner. Others were too ethnic. He liked a type. There was Olivia Culpo, Dayanara Torres [the 1993 winner], and, no surprise, East European women.”
His decisions weren’t always final, however. The staffer said Trump could easily be swayed to change his mind about a woman who was too ethnic “by telling him she was a princess and was married to a football player.”
Isikoff and Corn’s book is set to hit shelves March 13.
