Former Miss Universe: Trump Called Me ‘Miss Piggy,’ ‘Miss Housekeeping’

In an interview with “Inside Edition” on Thursday, Alicia Machado claimed that presumptive nominee Donald Trump bullied her after winning the Miss Universe crown. Trump allegedly called the 19-year-old “Miss Piggy” after she gained weight and “Miss Housekeeping” for her less-than-perfect English.

In 1996, the year Trump took over the beauty pageant, Machado went from Miss Venezuela to become the newly-crowned Miss Universe. She claims that she received endless torment from Trump after gaining close to 15 pounds following her beauty pageant win—though Trump insisted on camera that is was closer to 40 or 50 pounds. Trump even brought Machado to a gym to work out in front of media while he sat back and spoke of the model’s weight gain. Per Politico, Trump invited over 100 media outlets to the bizarre gym event.

“She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds and she went to 160 or 170. So this is somebody that likes to eat,” Trump told the press at the media-circus event in 1996. The then-Miss Universe is seen on camera in the background burning calories.

“For sure, he is not a good person,” Machado told Inside Edition, adding, “He called me Miss Piggy” and made me feel “so fat.” She also claims that he called her “Miss Housekeeping.”

The former model ended up becoming a successful telenovela star and later posed for Playboy, though she maintains that she struggled with anorexia and bulimia all the while. Machado said that Trump’s bullying contributed to her battle with eating disorders.

“I was very depressed in that moment,” she said.

Besides the humiliating gym-presser and the alleged name-calling, during an interview with Trump-pal Howard Stern, the real estate mogul called Machado an “eating machine.”

This all, of course, sounds very much like the Trump America has come to know: hyper-obsessive over women’s appearances and juvenile in his approach to communicate such an obsession.

Trump reportedly told a former employee, “You like your candy” after she gained a few pounds. He also retweeted a side-by-side photo of his retouched model wife next to an unflattering image of former rival Senator Ted Cruz’s wife to drive home the pathetic point: my-wife-is-hotter-than-yours.