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Which contestants detailed non-consensual encounters or inappropriate touching during Trump’s pageant years and what did they say?
Executive summary
Several former Miss Teen USA and Miss USA contestants have said Donald Trump entered dressing rooms or otherwise behaved inappropriately during the years he owned the pageants (1996–2015). Reporting names Mariah Billado and Samantha Holvey among others, and BuzzFeed’s 2016 reporting found at least four 1997 Miss Teen USA contestants who said Trump walked into a dressing room where girls as young as 15 were changing [1] [2] [3].
1. The core allegations: who said what
Mariah Billado, Miss Vermont Teen USA 1997, told BuzzFeed she remembered “putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” and recalled Trump saying “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before,” describing an incident in which he entered a Miss Teen USA dressing room while contestants were changing [2] [1]. Samantha Holvey, a former Miss USA contestant, publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct related to his pageant-era behavior and spoke at a press conference with other accusers; outlets like PBS and Democracy Now! covered her statements that Trump had moved into areas where contestants were getting ready and that she had encountered men behaving inappropriately [4] [5]. BuzzFeed in 2016 reported at least four women from the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant saying Trump entered dressing rooms with contestants as young as 15 [1] [3].
2. How many contestants corroborated the Miss Teen USA account
BuzzFeed’s 2016 reporting identified Mariah Billado and at least three other former teen contestants who corroborated that Trump walked into their dressing room in 1997; BuzzFeed also reached eleven other contestants from that year who said they did not recall Trump entering the dressing room [1] [2]. Snopes’ fact-checking reiterated the core account and noted both corroborations and denials among pageant participants [2].
3. Other pageant-era accusations and descriptions of behavior
Beyond the 1997 Miss Teen USA dressing-room accounts, multiple former Miss USA and Miss Universe contestants have made broader claims of inappropriate touching, groping, or invasions of privacy while Trump ran the pageants. Reporting and timelines compiled by outlets such as Rolling Stone and PBS document several contestants saying he grabbed or ogled them, invited them to hotel rooms, or moved into backstage areas where contestants were preparing [6] [7] [5].
4. Trump’s own remarks and how they’ve been interpreted
Trump told Howard Stern in 2005 that as the owner of pageants he would go backstage where contestants were getting dressed and that “I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant,” a remark that has been cited and circulated as evidence of his attitude toward access to contestants [1] [2]. Fact-checkers have noted the quote and pointed out debate over whether he was speaking specifically about Miss USA/Universe (adult contestants) or misrepresented as referencing Miss Teen USA [2].
5. Disputes, denials, and reporting limitations
Not all contestants corroborated the dressing-room claims: BuzzFeed found eleven contestants who said they had no recollection of Trump entering the room in 1997 [1]. Trump’s campaign at times issued categorical denials of such allegations and questioned the motives behind reporting [6]. Independent fact-checkers like Snopes summarized the reporting and noted both admissions (his Howard Stern comments) and the separate, serious allegations from multiple former contestants [2].
6. Legal and broader documentary context
Compilations of allegations against Trump list dozens of accusers across decades, including claims of groping, non-consensual contact, and walking in on contestants while undressing; these summaries (e.g., Wikipedia’s aggregated entries and PBS recaps) place the pageant-era allegations among many other accusations but also note Trump’s denials [5] [7]. Newsweek and other outlets stress that connection to unrelated figures (e.g., Epstein) does not itself imply legal accusations against Trump in those investigations, and they reiterate that Trump owned the pageants from 1996 to 2015—the period relevant to these accounts [8].
7. How reporters treated anonymity and corroboration
BuzzFeed’s 2016 story included named accounts like Billado’s and multiple anonymous corroborators; other outlets repeated or summarized those findings. Reporting thus mixes on-the-record statements, corroboration by other contestants, and denials or lack of recollection by additional participants, creating a mixed evidentiary picture that journalists have presented with caveats [1] [2] [3].
8. Takeaway and unanswered questions
Available reporting documents specific named accounts (Mariah Billado, Samantha Holvey) and multiple corroborating anonymous sources alleging Trump entered dressing rooms or acted inappropriately during his pageant ownership [1] [4]. However, sources also report contestants who do not recall incidents and record Trump’s denials; further legal findings or new on-the-record corroboration would change the public record [1] [2] [6]. Available sources do not mention criminal convictions tied to these pageant-era dressing-room allegations [8].