Editor’s Note: This article has been continuously updated as more accusers have emerged.
In the years since the Access Hollywood video emerged showing Donald Trump bragging about his ability to get away with sexual assault, more than 16 women stepped forward to allege the president touched them inappropriately.
In October, that tally grew even more. Forty-three new allegations of Trump’s alleged inappropriate behavior with women, including 26 new allegations of unwanted sexual touching were exposed in All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator, a new book by journalists Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy.
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The allegations amount to a substantial list of alleged sexual harassment and assault dating back to the early 1970s. Trump has denied every allegation against him.
Late 1970s—Jessica Leeds claims Trump groped her on a flight: Leeds, now 74, told The New York Times that shortly after her flight took off to New York, over three decades ago, Trump raised the armrest separating them and grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hands up her skirt. “He was like an octopus,” she said. “His hands were everywhere.”
Early 1980s—NaKina Carr claims she witnessed Trump grope and forcibly kissed models: Carr was working as a runway model for Oscar de la Renta, when Trump allegedly became known for groping models at random. Carr claims that the real-estate mogul went down a line of women feeling their bodies to guess their size and another time moved his hands all over a woman’s breasts to purportedly inspect the fabric. “He had his hands in the most inappropriate places, always,” Carr told the authors of All the President’s Women in an excerpt published in Cosmopolitan. “When he went in to kiss someone, the hand always went to either the hip or the butt. He was also really good when he did pictures or when he’d side-hug someone. He’d always get his hand on the boob. Every time.” Carr noted that she witnessed Trump kiss models without consent “several times.” She told the authors: “When he met a girl, he’d immediately move in to kiss her, not shake her hand or say ‘Hello, how are you?’ He’d immediately put his mouth on her. I saw him many times go straight to the mouth, to kiss them on the mouth, and they would turn their cheek. But a lot of them didn’t because they knew he was the moneyman and it was a way up.”
1989—Ivana Trump, his first wife, claims that she felt “violated” during sex: As The Daily Beast reported last year, Ivana Trump said in a court deposition about their divorce that he “violated” her during sex following a violent attack. Ivana reportedly described the incident as “rape” to several confidantes. She later said she wouldn’t describe the act as rape in a “criminal sense,” adding: “As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
Early 1990s—Kristin Anderson claims he touched her genitals: The Washington Post reported on Friday that Anderson was at The China Club in Manhattan when Trump, without introducing himself or speaking to her, reached his hand up her skirt while they were seated. “This is the vivid part for me: The person on my right, unbeknownst to me was Donald Trump, put their hands up my skirt. He did touch my vagina through my underwear, absolutely.” At the time, Anderson got up and told her friends but did nothing about the incident. She added that, over the years, her opinion has changed: “It’s actually not nothing, and it really sends an awful message to women that they are nothing.” The bus tape was “nauseating” to Anderson and that the story of Trump allegedly groping a woman on an airplane motivated her to come forward to “back these girls up.”
1991—Stacy Wilkes said Trump came into a dressing room while young teen girls were changing: Wilkes was 16 years old when she competed in the 1991 Elite Model Look of the Year contest on behalf of the United States. She told reporters that Trump wandered into their dressing area more than once, telling jokes and making the sometimes naked underage girls feel “really uncomfortable.” Wilkes said: “Every time we would change, it was like Trump would find a reason to come backstage to see all the teen-agers,” she said. “When you’re doing a runway show, they have to strip you down and change you. . . . There was no need for him to be back there.”
1992—Shawna Lee made a second, similar allegation against Trump: Lee told the authors of All the President’s Women that she was 14 years old at the Elite Model Look of the Year contest and representing Canada when Trump walked backstage into the dressing room. “I was thinking, what’s that old guy doing back here,” she said. “I was changing and looked up as he was looking and doing a slow stroll by, checking out the girls.”
1993—Makeup artist Jill Harth accuses Trump of attempted rape: Harth alleged in a Guardian interview that Trump had cornered her and groped her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. “He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth told The Guardian, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George [Harth’s boyfriend at the time], he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”
1996—Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room: Carroll wrote in a New York magazine cover story that Trump violently assaulted her in a fitting room at Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman. The two had an initially friendly encounter after running into each other at the store, she said. Trump insisted Carroll try on a lace bodysuit, and when they reached the dressing rooms, he allegedly shoved her against a wall and pulled down her tights, then thrusted “his penis halfway—or completely, I’m not certain—inside me,” she said. Carroll said she used her four-inch heels as leverage to push Trump off of her during the “colossal struggle.” Following the alleged assault, Carroll said she told a couple of her friends about the incident. “Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you,” one friend allegedly said.
1997—Miss Teen USA contestants say Trump walked in on underage girls dressing backstage: Four women who competed in the contest alleged to BuzzFeed News that Trump walked into the dressing room while they were changing. Tasha Dixon, who competed as Miss USA Arizona—not in the teen competition—in 2001 said: “He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked.” Some of the contestants in Miss Teen USA were as young as 15. “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before,” Trump allegedly said. Bridget Sullivan, who was crowned Miss New Hampshire 2000, also said during the presidential that Trump came into the Miss Universe changing room while the contestants were naked. “The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked,” she told Buzzfeed.
Trump would later admit that he did these sorts of things during an appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show.
1997—Cathy Heller claims Trump forcibly kissed her: Heller told The Guardian and then ABC News that she was attending a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago when she put her hand out to say hi to Trump and he grabbed her and began kissing her on the lips. Though Heller says she pulled away, Trump allegedly responded, “Oh, come on.” He purportedly grabbed her again and, despite her protests, got near her lips, Heller told reporters. The Trump campaign said in Oct. 2016 that it was a “false accusation.”
1997—Temple Taggart McDowell said he forcibly kissed her: As a 21-year-old Miss USA contestant, McDowell was introduced to Trump during a pageant rehearsal in Shreveport, Louisiana. She says Trump embraced her and then immediately kissed her. “He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ she told The New York Times. “He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.’”
1998—Karena Virginia said he grabbed her breast at the U.S. Open: While she was waiting for a car, the then-27-year-old woman claims Trump grabbed her right arm and her breast. “‘Don’t you know who I am, don’t you know who I am,’ he said,” Virginia said at a press conference with Gloria Allred. “I felt intimidated and I felt powerless,” she said, adding: “I felt ashamed that I was wearing a short dress and high heels. That feeling of shame stayed with me for a while and it made me disinclined to wear short dresses or high heels.”
Early 2000s—Karen Johnson said Trump groped her genitals at Mar-A-Lago: Johnson, who spoke publicly about her allegations for the first time in the All the President’s Women, said she was at a New Year’s Eve party with her husband at Trump’s Palm Beach estate, when Trump grabbed her and pulled her behind a tapestry. “I’m a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he’s strong, and he just kissed me,” Johnson said. “When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the pussy,’ that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me.”
2003—Mindy McGillivray claims he groped her at Mar-a-Lago: The woman, then 23, told the Palm Beach Post: “All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly.” McGillivray said she recalls telling the photographer, Ken Davidoff, “Donald just grabbed my ass.”
2005—Rachel Crooks said he forcibly kissed her at Trump Tower: Crooks, who was working at the real-estate company Bayrock Group at Trump Tower, told The New York Times on Wednesday that after a handshake, Trump began kissing her on the cheeks and then directly on the mouth. “It was so inappropriate,” Crooks said. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
2005—Trump admits he looks at naked beauty-pageant contestants: During one of his many appearances on the Howard Stern show, CNN reported Trump said he would go backstage while women were dressing for his Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. “Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” Trump said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good.”
2005—Trump brags he can get away with sexual assault: On a tour bus with Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush, Trump claims on a hot-mic that his fame allows him to do almost anything to women. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” he said on a video first obtained by The Washington Post. Trump explained: “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab them by the pussy.” During this exchange, Trump says he tried to have sex with Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell. Trump was already married to his third and current wife, Melania, who was pregnant with their son at the time.
2005—People reporter Natasha Stoynoff alleges Trump pushed her against a wall and forced a kiss on her: Stoynoff, who writes that she had a developed a friendly relationship with Trump and Melania while on the Trump beat for People, had come to Mar-A-Lago to report on the couple’s first wedding anniversary. When pregnant Melania went upstairs to change clothes, Stoynoff writes, Trump said he had a “tremendous” room to show her and led her into another room and shut the door. There, she writes, “within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.” The alleged incident ended when Trump’s butler entered the room to say Melania was on her way down. “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” Trump allegedly said when the butler left.
2005—Jennifer Murphy claims Trump kissed her on the lips after a job interview: Murphy was a contestant on the fourth season of The Apprentice and claims that after she was fired from the reality show, Trump said he could offer her a job after the finale aired. After the interview, Murphy told British magazine Grazia, “He walked me to the elevator, and I said goodbye. I was thinking, ‘Oh, he’s going to hug me,’ but when he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch. I was like, ‘Oh kay.’ I didn’t know how to act. I was just a little taken aback and probably turned red. And I then I get into the elevator and thought, ‘Huh, Donald Trump just kissed me on the lips.’”
2006—Former Miss Finland Ninni Laaksonen says Trump groped her: A local Finnish newspaper reports that Miss Finland in 2006, Ninni Laaksonen, claims Trump grabbed her on the behind while she was in New York that year, just before she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. “Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt. He really grabbed my butt,” she said. “I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’”
2006—Jessica Drake claims Trump kissed her and two other women without their consent: Drake announced her allegations in Oct. 2016 alongside famed attorney Gloria Allred. Drake said she first met Trump at a golf tournament in 2006 and that she was invited up to his hotel suite, bringing along two other women because she “didn’t feel right going alone.” Drake said: “When we entered the room, he grabbed each of us tightly in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission.” After they left, she says she got a call from Trump asking her to come back and have dinner with him. “Donald then asked me, ‘What do you want? How much?’’
2007—Former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos says he thrust his genitals at her and groped her: On Friday, Zervos accused Trump of groping her and trying to have sex with during a job interview. Zervos had been a contestant on Season 5 of The Apprentice in 2005 and came to his golf course in Palos Verdes, California to discuss a job opportunity two years later. Zervos said Trump kissed her forcibly on the lips several times and groped her. A second time, Trump allegedly walked her into a bed room and began “thrusting his genitals” at her before she told him to stop. The two had dinner immediately afterwards, where Trump allegedly "started saying that he did not think that I ever known love."
2010—Trump allegedly tries to kiss woman in a boardroom: CNN anchor Erin Burnett told a story relayed to her from a friend about Trump attempting an unprompted kiss. “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested I take them also. He then leaned in, catching me off guard, and kissed me almost on lips. I was really freaked out,” Burnett quoted her friend as saying. Afterward, the friend said Trump told her how “special I am” and asked her to call him.
2013—Cassandra Searles alleges that Trump groped her: Cassandra Searles, a former Miss Washington who participated in the Miss USA contest while Trump was an owner, posted on Facebook saying, “he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room,” reported Seattle’s KING-TV.
2016—Alva Johnson alleges that Trump forcibly kissed her: According to the former campaign aide’s federal lawsuit, filed in February 2019, Trump grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her, but the now-43-year-old mother-of-four claims she turned her head to avoid the “super-creepy” kiss. The future president’s lips allegedly ended up on the side of her mouth. “I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she told The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.” Johnson dropped her lawsuit in September 2019, saying, “I’m fighting against a person with unlimited resources, and repeatedly the judicial system has failed to find fault in his behavior.”
—Gideon Resnick contributed reporting.
