REPORT: Trump Vetoed Miss Universe Contestants Who Were Dark-Skinned Or Had Snubbed His Advances

Mother Jones today published a long-read on Trump’s passionate bromance with Vladimir Putin. Near the end of the piece is this:

At each pageant, Miss Universe staffers would set up a special room for Trump backstage. It had to conform to his precise require­ments. He needed his favorite snacks: Nutter Butters and white Tic Tacs. And Diet Coke. There could be no distracting pictures on the wall. The room had to be immaculate. He required unscented soap and hand towels—rolled, not folded. In this room would be videos of the finalists who had been selected days earlier in a preliminary competition and the other contestants, particularly footage of the women in gowns and swim­ suits. Here, a day or two before the final telecast, Trump would review the judges’ decisions.

Frequently, Trump would toss out finalists and replace them with others he preferred. “If there were too many women of color, he would make changes,” a Miss Universe staffer later noted. Another Miss Universe staffer recalled, “He often thought a woman was too ethnic or too dark-skinned. He had a particular type of woman he thought was a winner. Others were too ethnic. He liked a type. There was Olivia Culpo, Dayanara Torres [the 1993 winner], and, no surprise, East European women.” On occasion, according to this staffer, Trump would reject a woman “who had snubbed his advances.”

According to Mother Jones, Trump could sometimes be talked out of his veto if he was told the contestant was a princess or married to a soccer star. Last month it was reported that Trump tended to select contestants from countries where he had business interests. The full piece above is worth your time.