Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump has been criticized for disparaging comments he has made about women, ranging from Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly to Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado.
Now, a new report alleges that Trump’s behind-the-scenes behavior on the NBC show, The Apprentice, was “sexist” and “lewd.”
Trump reportedly made repeated demeaning comments about female contestants and crew members on his hit show The Apprentice, according to an investigation by The Associated Press. The AP said on Monday that interviews with more than 20 people—members of the crew, former contestants and editors on the show—revealed long-running sexist behavior by Trump, including the GOP presidential nominee commenting on the size of female contestants’ breasts and identifying which women on the show he would like to have sex with.
The AP reports that the interviewees who spent a lot of time on the set of The Apprentice with Trump said the real estate mogul often commented on the rear-end of one camerawoman, comparing her looks to those of his daughter, Ivanka Trump. Other times, the AP reports, Trump would even embarrass an attractive female contestant on set, between takes, by asking their male colleagues if they would sleep with her.
“If there was a break in the conversation, he would then look at one of the female cast members, saying ‘you’re looking kind of hot today, I love that dress on you,’ then he would turn to one of the male cast members and say ‘wouldn’t you sleep with her?’ And then everyone would laugh,” one former crew member from the show told the AP on condition of anonymity due to a non-disclosure agreement.
According to the AP’s investigation, there was also one season of The Apprentice where Trump asked that female contestants wear more revealing clothing, and several cast members told the publication that Trump once asked a female contestant to spin around for him to get a better look at her body.
In response to Coins2Day‘s request for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung sent a campaign statement saying, “These outlandish, unsubstantiated, and totally false claims fabricated by publicity hungry, opportunistic, disgruntled former employees, have no merit whatsoever.” The campaign also called The Apprentice “one of the most successful prime-time television shows of all time” while claiming that many of the people the show employed now support Trump’s presidential run. (The AP said that most of the former workers and contestants they interviewed offered no opinion on the current election, but most of those who did said they are not voting for Trump.)
Throughout Trump’s campaign for the presidency, the GOP nominee has frequently faced criticism for past disparaging remarks he has made about women, from Rosie O’Donnell to Megyn Kelly, to name a few. In the last week, Trump has especially come under fire for his past comments about the weight of former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado. Trump, who used to own the Miss Universe pageant, has been accused of calling Machado “Miss Housekeeping” and “Miss Piggy,” and he has since doubled down on ridiculing her for supposedly gaining weight after winning her crown in 1996.
