Did former President Donald Trump once brag about going backstage at the "Miss Teen USA show" when "everyone's getting dressed and ready," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: There is no record of Trump having made such a statement. The post misrepresented Trump's genuine words. During a 2005 interview with Howard Stern, Trump discussed going backstage at the Miss USA and Miss Universe contests, which he was then a co-owner of. He did not mention the Miss Teen USA pageant. The post appears to confuse this interview with a 2016 accusation that Trump had walked into the dressing rooms of Miss Teen USA pageant participants during the 1997 contest.
A version of the claim appeared in a post on Facebook on March 22, 2024, (archive) in a meme that read:
What a freakin Creep
'I'll tell you the funniest thing. I'll go backstage before a Miss Teen USA show, and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything and 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.
Below is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Wed March 26 06:14:00 UTC 2024)
During an appearance on the "Howard Stern Show," Trump indeed spoke of walking in on contestants, but he was referring to the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which require contestants to be 18 and older. The post above switches the name of Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, Trump's genuine words, to "Miss Teen USA," to suggest Trump had committed a crime against underage girls.
Here's how we know.
On October 9, 2016, CNN (archive) reported that Trump appeared in an interview on April 11, 2005, on the Howard Stern talk show, in which he discussed going backstage at the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants. According to CNN, Stern asked Trump if he had ever had sex with a Miss Universe or Miss USA contestant, to which he reportedly replied:
I never comment on things like that ...
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.
"I'll tell you the funniest thing. I'll go backstage before a Miss Teen USA show, and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything and 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.
The genuine statement from Trump can be heard at the 1:40 mark (archive) of the audio clip below:
Lead Stories confirmed the above transcript with one shared by Factbase (archive). This online public database documents statements, speeches, tweets and press interviews with Trump and President Joe Biden. We also contacted SiriusXM and the Howard Stern Show for a copy of the interview and will update this article accordingly.
Trump's response on the Howard Stern Show was about the Miss USA (archive) and Miss Universe (archive) pageants, whose contestants must be 18 years old. Nowhere in the transcript was "Miss Teen USA" mentioned.
The post on Facebook combined Trump's 2005 statements with another event. On October 13, 2016, BuzzFeed reported allegations (archive) from five (archive) former contestants "who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant" who claimed that "Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants -- some as young as 15 -- were changing." Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization, which included the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, from 1996 to 2015, according to The New Yorker (archive).
As was first reported by PolitiFact on October 18, 2016 (archive), the 2005 interview was first misrepresented by former Rep. Ron Kind (archive), a Wisconsin Democrat who served from 1997 to 2023. Kind was reportedly quoted during an October 12, 2016, meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as having said:
I was just reading on the way over here this morning on how Trump would walk into the (Miss) Teen USA dressing room, all these 15- and 16-year-olds completely naked, just walk right in on them. Man, is that the image we want of the president of the United States? It's just disturbing to think that he could get away with all this stuff.
Lead Stories contacted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to confirm that Kind made the statement above. We will update the article accordingly.
The Washington Post reported (archive) on October 12, 2016, that a spokesperson for the Trump campaign denied the allegations related to the Miss Teen USA pageant:
These accusations have no merit and have already been disproven by many other individuals who were present. When you see questionable attacks like this magically put out there in the final month of a presidential campaign, you have to ask yourself what the political motivations are and why the media is pushing it.
Lead Stories also contacted Sirius XM for a copy of the alleged interview, as it was not listed on YouTube or available on the satellite radio app.
