Alicia Machado: Donald Trump Called Me ‘Miss Piggy,’ Claimed 50-Pound Weight Gain [Video]
The troubles of Donald Trump concerning Trump’s alleged treatment of women continue to dog Trump in the press. As reported by Newser, a former Miss Universe is providing additional details about the way Trump allegedly treated the beauty pageant winner after she gained weight.
Alicia Machado said that she needed therapy to deal with the eating disorders that followed her interactions with Trump. Alicia was a 19-year-old in 1996 when Machado became Miss Universe. As seen in the above video, Machado calls Trump a bully and claims that Trump bullied her all the time about her weight gain.
#Dailymail Donald Trump blamed by ex-Miss Universe for years of eating disorders she suffered: Alicia Machado… https://t.co/9PL7BYCfck
— ??ThaiLand?? (@nakhon224) May 20, 2016
As reported by Inside Edition, Machado said that Trump fat-shamed her and would call her bad names when she gained approximately 15 pounds in the wake of the pageant. Trump claimed that the weight gain was closer to 50 pounds.
“He called me Miss Piggy. I was very depressed in that moment. He can’t be a president. For sure he is not a good person.”
Previously, Alicia made her experiences with Trump public when Machado said that Trump made her the center of a media storm that she didn’t expect, as reported by the Inquisitr. Machado said she didn’t know Trump had arranged for nearly 100 members of the press to show up and watch her exercise. When Alicia said she expressed the fact to Trump that she didn’t want to do the press junket, Machado claims Trump said he didn’t care.
Instead, Trump told shock-jock Howard Stern that Alicia was an “eating machine,” with Trump claiming Machado had gained 50 pounds instead of the 15 pounds Alicia said she’d gained in the months after becoming Miss Universe. According to the Daily Mail, Machado had gained approximately 40 pounds.
The weight gain forced Trump to think about taking away Alicia’s crown after the 1996 competition. Trump’s claims about Alicia’s weight gain at the time had a dramatic and negative impact upon Machado.
“She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds and she went to 160 or 170. So this is somebody that likes to eat.”
Machado said she felt so ashamed after being paraded in front of the press that it led to years of eating disorders.
“After that episode, I was sick, [anorexic] and [bulimic] for five years. Over the past 20 years, I’ve gone to a lot of psychologists to combat this.”
Machado was one of the many women featured in a viral article by the New York Times, which focused on Trump’s alleged interactions with women. Beyond Trump telling Stern that Alicia was an “eating machine,” Trump also told the press that Machado was a woman who liked to eat, and Trump reportedly made fun of the way Machado spoke.
According to Politico, Alicia, now 39 years of age, is from Venezuela. As such, Machado says that Trump made fun of her less-than-perfect English skills in the past. It is an ironic thing to imagine, seeing as though Trump’s current wife, Melania Trump, is also foreign-born. Alicia said that Trump called her “Miss Housekeeping” along with the disparaging “Miss Piggy” moniker. Despite the run-ins with Trump, Alicia experienced a successful acting career, with Machado going on to star in telenovela soap operas after the pageant.
Alicia will also become an American citizen prior to the 2016 presidential election, but Machado will not vote for Trump, a man she believes should not become President.
When Trump was asked if he would dump his wife at the time of the Machado weight gain controversy, Trump claimed that if Marla Maples gained weight like Machado, he would tell Maples to exercise.
“Well, I’d probably do the same thing with her. I’d say, ‘start working out.’ No, I wouldn’t. Still a very interesting question.”
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[Photo by Mel Evans/AP Images]
