A former People magazine reporter claims Donald Trump forced himself on her when she went to interview him in 2005 at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The alleged incident occurred as Trump’s third wife, Melania, was very pregnant with their son, Barron.
“Our photo team shot the Trumps on the lush grounds of their Florida estate, and I interviewed them about how happy their first year of marriage had been. When we took a break for the then very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one ‘tremendous’ room in particular, he said, that I just had to see,” former People reporter Natasha Stoynoff wrote.
She continued, writing, “We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.
“Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise, and throwing me off balance,” she added. “I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.”
Stoynoff wrote that the butler’s entrance broke up the businessman’s attempts to get what he wanted, and they reset things to continue the interview, which focused a lot on the Trumps as newlyweds.
As they waited for Trump’s wife to return, the businessman informed Stoynoff that she would be his partner in an affair.
“You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” he reportedly said. “Have you ever been to Peter Luger’s for steaks? I’ll take you. We’re going to have an affair, I’m telling you.”
Stoynoff wrote, “He also referenced the infamous cover of the New York Post during his affair with Marla Maples. ‘You remember,’ he said. ‘Best Sex I Ever Had.'”
She mentioned the incident to a colleague after it happened, but decided against making it into an issue. Stoynoff also requested that she be removed from covering Trump.
Her article Wednesday evening comes just days after the Washington Post published a report revealing Trump once bragged about leveraging his celebrity status in return for sexual favors from women, some of them married.
“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump bragged in 2005 to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
“Grab them by the pussy,” Trump said. “You can do anything.”
Though Trump has apologized for the content of the 2005 tape, he has also sought to downplay the audio as just “locker room talk.”
On Wednesday, Stoynoff wrote that she was relieved to learn that she was not the only one Trump thought he could simply take.
“I’m not sure what locker room talk consists of these days. I only know that I wasn’t in a locker room when he pushed me against a wall. I was in his home, as a professional, and his beautiful pregnant wife was just upstairs,” she wrote “Talk is talk. But it wasn’t just talk in my case, it was very much action. And, just for the record, Mr. Trump, I did not consent.”
