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Former Miss Australia Calls Out Donald Trump for Being ‘Sexist’ and ‘Controlling’

Former Miss Australia Jodie Seal claims she had her own issues with Donald Trump. (Photo: Facebook)
Former Miss Australia Jodie Seal claims she had her own issues with Donald Trump. (Photo: Facebook)

First, there was Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe who was mentioned by Hillary Clinton at Monday’s presidential debate as just one example of women who have been bullied by her opponent Donald Trump. Machado claimed she was relentlessly shamed by then-pageant-owner Trump back in 1996 for gaining weight postpageant. His name-calling (“Miss Piggy”), public humiliation (he invited the press to cover her workouts), and threats to rescind her title were so much to bear that she claims she was driven to life-threatening eating disorders that took years to overcome.

Now a second contestant has come out to share her similar experience with the Republican presidential nominee. Former Miss Australia Jodie Seal, who competed with Machado, compared Trump to Benito Mussolini, the notorious fascist Italian dictator, in the way the mogul treated pageant contestants, in an interview with Inside Edition that aired Tuesday.

Seal said that Trump told her “suck your stomach in, or suck your gut in,” trying to recall his exact words. “He was calling some girls some pretty horrible names as well,” she added in the interview.

Related: Meet the Trainer Donald Trump Tasked With Helping Alicia Machado Lose Weight

The morning after the first presidential debate, in the midst of the Machado controversy, Trump called into Fox and Friends to defend his abuse of the former beauty queen.

“She was the worst we ever had,” he told Fox and Friends. “She was a winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and we had a real problem. We had a real problem with her.” The New York Times has also documented Trump’s unapologetic ways. “Mr. Trump said he had pushed her to lose weight,” according to the publication. “‘To that, I will plead guilty,’ he said, expressing no regret for his tactics.”

Seal remembered Machado in the interview. “She weighed less than I did, during the pageant, after the pageant. There’s no way she was big. I really feel for her. She was meant to be the most beautiful woman in the world — Miss Universe — and she was treated with no respect,” Seal said in the interview. Allegedly, she also accused Trump of being “very brash,” “very sexist,” “very scathing,” and “so controlling” in the interview with host Megan Alexander. “He’d walk by while we were eating. He put a lot of the girls down. It was supposed to be the time of our lives. He would make us exercise every day.”

Photo by Jorge Herrera/Getty Images
Photo: Jorge Herrera/Getty Images

Related: Dissecting That ‘Presidential Look’: All the Ways Appearance Could Sway Votes to Trump or Clinton

Inside Edition did find one pageant contestant who speaks well of Trump. Former Miss Sweden Camilla Hanson said: “I had a few conversations with him. A few interactions. He sort of popped up when you least expected it, during rehearsals. I thought he was a nice man.” Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson also defended Trump’s behavior when he owned the pageant, to The Kelly File.

“We are talking about beauty pageants,” Pierson said. “These individuals who participated in these pageants had a weight clause in their contracts. This is organization-wide.”

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