What exact words did Donald Trump use when describing entering beauty pageant dressing rooms and when/where did he say them?

1. The exact phrasing most often quoted — what he said

The quote most frequently attributed to Trump reads: “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” — language repeated in People’s reporting of his comments ^[1] and echoed in other outlets and timelines ^{[4] [5]}. Full Fact and Snopes examined variations and the context, noting the same core lines about going backstage, contestants “getting dressed,” and invoking ownership as justification ^{[3] [2]}.

2. When and where he said it — the Howard Stern interview and other moments

Fact-checkers and contemporaneous reporting trace the remark to an interview on The Howard Stern Show in April 2005, which is the instance Full Fact and Snopes identify as the source for the quoted wording ^{[3] [2]}. People’s 2016 piece reproduces the same lines and links them to Trump’s public comments about entering backstage areas during his time owning pageants ^[1]. Rolling Stone’s timeline and Wikipedia’s summary likewise cite his public comments about going backstage while owning the Miss Universe/Miss USA franchise ^{[4] [5]}.

3. The dispute over whether he was describing teen contestants

Some social posts and articles presented the quote as Trump specifically describing Miss Teen USA contestants (minors) undressing. Snopes and Full Fact say that while Trump bragged about going backstage and seeing contestants partially or wholly undressed, the primary sourced quote does not explicitly name Miss Teen USA and more reliably refers to pageants he owned that featured adult contestants (Miss USA/Miss Universe). Thus, the claim that he explicitly described entering Miss Teen USA dressing rooms in that particular quoted line is misleading according to those fact-checkers ^{[2] [3]}.

4. Corroborating allegations from pageant contestants

Independent reporting has documented allegations from multiple former Miss Teen USA and Miss USA contestants who said Trump entered dressing rooms or met contestants while they were undressing; People and Rolling Stone recount specific former contestants’ memories, including a Miss Vermont Teen USA competitor who said Trump barged into a 1997 dressing room ^{[1] [4]}. Wikipedia’s compilation of sexual-misconduct allegations also summarizes contestants’ accounts alongside Trump’s own statements about backstage access ^[5].

5. How journalists and fact-checkers treat intent and implication

The mainstream accounts and timelines treat the matter in two linked strands: (a) Trump’s own boast that, as owner, he could go backstage and “inspect,” and (b) former contestants’ testimony that he did enter dressing rooms while contestants were partially undressed. Fact-checkers emphasize distinguishing the precise quote’s target (pageants broadly versus specifically Miss Teen USA) and warn that some social-media posts conflate or misattribute the wording to teen-pageant contexts ^{[2] [3] [1]}.

6. Limitations in current reporting and remaining questions

Available sources document the quoted wording and place one notable instance on Howard Stern in 2005, and they compile contestant allegations from the 1990s and 2000s ^{[2] [3] [1] [4]}. What available sources do not mention is a definitive transcript tying that exact phrasing to a single, time-stamped recording of Trump explicitly saying “Miss Teen USA” in the same breath; fact-checkers say that specific linkage is not supported ^{[2] [3]}. Also, some sources summarize contestant claims without legal adjudication; reporting and encyclopedia entries collect allegations and denials rather than court conclusions ^{[5] [1]}.

7. Bottom line for readers

Trump did say, on record, that he would “go backstage” and that as owner he was “allowed to go in” and “inspecting” — words widely reported from a 2005 Howard Stern interview and cited by multiple outlets ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Separate reporting and firsthand accounts allege he entered dressing rooms of teen contestants in the 1990s, but fact-checkers caution that the quoted boast itself did not explicitly name Miss Teen USA and that some social media posts have conflated the two threads ^{[1] [2] [3]}.