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Have any pageant contestants or organizers corroborated Trump's statements about entering backstage areas?
Executive summary
Reporting shows multiple former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants have told journalists they saw or remember Donald Trump entering backstage or dressing-room areas while contestants were undressing; at least four women from the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant and several Miss USA contestants (2000–2001 accounts) made such claims, while other contestants contacted said they did not recall any incident and Trump’s campaign denied the allegations [1] [2] [3]. Trump himself, in a 2005 Howard Stern interview, described going backstage while contestants were getting dressed — he framed it as inspection of the adult Miss USA/Miss Universe shows, not Miss Teen USA — and fact-checkers say his Stern comments were sometimes misrepresented as referring to teens [4] [5].
1. Multiple contestants have publicly corroborated being walked in on
Several former contestants gave on-the-record accounts to news outlets asserting that Trump entered backstage or dressing rooms. BuzzFeed and follow-up pieces recorded at least four women from the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant saying Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing; People, Rolling Stone and others summarized those accounts [1] [6] [5]. Separately, Miss USA-era contestants such as Tasha Dixon and a Guardian source described Trump barging into or “waltzing in” on rehearsal dressing rooms during 2000–2001 events [3] [7].
2. Not all contestants remember or confirm the same events
News organizations that sought broader canvassing reported mixed recall among contestants. BuzzFeed and People said they contacted additional contestants from the 1997 pageant; eleven told BuzzFeed they did not recall Trump entering the dressing room, and some former Miss Teen contestants said reports were exaggerated [1] [2] [8]. PolitiFact and other fact-checkers note the differing accounts and lack of a single, uncontested contemporaneous record [2] [4].
3. Trump’s own comments: bragging about entering backstage of adult pageants
Trump told Howard Stern in 2005 that he would “go backstage before a show” and see contestants “standing there with no clothes,” adding that as owner he was “allowed to go in” — a remark Stern’s interview framed around Miss USA and Miss Universe, whose contestants are adults [4] [5]. Fact-checkers and Snopes emphasize that while Trump did boast of entering dressing areas, his spoken remarks were about adult pageants and have been misrepresented in some online posts as admissions about Miss Teen USA [4] [5].
4. Journalists and fact-checkers highlight limits and disputed details
PolitiFact, Snopes and other outlets conclude the record is mixed: there are on-the-record allegations from multiple contestants and corroborating contemporary recollections for some incidents, while many other contestants do not recall the events and Trump’s campaign denied the allegations as “no merit” [2] [4] [5]. Investigations and long-form reporting (e.g., Rolling Stone, The Guardian) documented specific first-person accounts but also note inconsistencies in timing, which contestants were involved, and whether Trump referred to Miss Teen USA in his own comments [6] [3].
5. How mainstream outlets framed the corroboration question
Major outlets reported that at least a handful of former contestants corroborated claims that Trump entered backstage areas when contestants were partially or fully undressed; those outlets also reported that other contestants denied remembering such incidents and that the campaign denied the allegations [1] [6] [3]. Snopes and PolitiFact specifically flagged misattributions of Trump’s Stern quote to teen contestants and stressed that Trump’s public remarks referenced adult pageants even as separate contestant allegations involved Miss Teen USA [5] [4].
6. What’s not (or not clearly) in the sources
Available sources document multiple on-the-record contestant allegations and Trump’s Stern comments, but they do not provide an uncontested, contemporaneous eyewitness log or official pageant records proving each claimed entry; several contacted contestants said they did not recall the incidents, and no source in this set produces a definitive, court-adjudicated finding resolving all claims [2] [4] [1]. The Trump campaign’s denials are reported, but no source here supplies internal Miss Universe Organization logs or a comprehensive institutional investigation that corroborates or disproves every allegation [2] [5].
Bottom line: Multiple former contestants and some journalists reported that Trump entered backstage or dressing-room areas while contestants were undressed; other contestants say they do not recall such events, and fact-checkers caution that Trump’s own public remarks described adult pageants and have at times been misrepresented as admissions about Miss Teen USA [1] [3] [4].