1997 Video: Trump was not Unkind to Alicia Machado

Hillary Clinton knew just what to say during the Sep. 26th debate to provoke a response from Donald Trump. 

As we know, the Democratic nominee will say just about anything to paint a bad picture of her rival, and as Trump pointed out during the debate, she has spent “hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads” against him, “many of which are untrue.” 

Hillary Clinton brought up Trump’s “love” of beauty pageants during the recent debate, rattling the GOP candidate on a topic not even relevant to his presidency. “He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them,” she said. Clinton then slammed Trump for calling former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”

Machado is Hispanic, and the media couldn’t resist lumping this accusation into Trump’s earlier statements about Latinos. 

The video linked below shows Trump interacting with reporters and Alicia at a gym in 1997. As you will see, Trump was not unkind to the model.

When questioned about Alicia’s weight gain (12 pounds), Trump said that he visits the gym “as little as possible.” He noted that models are under “tremendous pressure” to remain thin and that it is not uncommon to gain weight while under pressure. “Alicia is like me, and like a lot of other people. I love to eat; we all love to eat.”

When asked what advice he would give to Alicia, Trump replied, “I don’t think Alicia needs much advice. Before I owned the Miss Universe contest, I went to the Miss Universe contest… I felt that Alicia was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. It was incredible.”

Alicia seemed charmed by Donald Trump, even offering to workout with him.

Trump stated that Alicia was beautiful when she won and “she’s totally beautiful now.” Trump denies calling Alicia the insulting nicknames Hillary threw at him during the debate, and encourages his supporters not to believe everything the media says. He posted the following message to Twitter on September 20th:

Anytime you see a story about me or my campaign saying “sources said,” DO NOT believe it. There are no sources, they are just made up lies!