Less than two years after a female journalist supposedly rebuffed Donald Trump’s sexual advances—as heard on newly discovered video—he allegedly tried to have her fired from one of his beauty pageants.
On Friday, The Washington Post revealed video of the Republican presidential nominee bragging to Billy Bush about non-consensually groping women (a.k.a, sexual assault): “When you’re a star, they let you do it—you can do anything,” Trump said in the unearthed 2005 Access Hollywood footage. “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump, newly married to his then-pregnant bride Melania at the time, also chatted about trying, and failing, to have sex with a married woman.
“You know I moved on her actually,” Trump recounted to a young Bush. “You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married … I took her out [for] furniture [shopping]. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”
That married woman (identified as “Nancy” by Trump) was subsequently identified by Access Hollywood as former host Nancy O’Dell during the show’s Friday night episode.
Trump interacted with O’Dell, who now works on Entertainment Tonight, in her side-gig as a host at Trump beauty pageants. O’Dell co-hosted (along with her Access Hollywood colleague Billy Bush) the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant in 2004 and 2005. Trump made his vulgar comments about O’Dell to Bush in 2005.
In 2007, TMZ reported that the real-estate mogul wanted to kick O’Dell to the curb as Miss USA host because he allegedly didn’t like the way she looked while she was several months pregnant. (Trump’s people did not deny the report at the time, and simply refused to comment.)
The report became tabloid fodder in the pages of outlets like People magazine and the New York Post.
Ultimately, Trump’s bid to get O’dell nixed (whatever his true motivation) was unsuccessful. O’Dell was under contract with NBC, which decided to keep the five-months pregnant host. She ended up hosting the that year’s ceremony alongside Access Hollywood correspondent Tim Vincent.
“What was particularly troubling to O’dell, our source says, is that the Miss USA Pageant is supposed to embody more than just how a woman looks in a bikini,” TMZ reported.
“TAKE that, Donald!” the New York Post exclaimed at the news of Trump’s failure to get his one-time object of lust dumped from the 2007 pageant.
