His daughter Ivanka Trump, then 15 years old, served as co-host.
LAS VEGAS - In all, students calling for tougher gun laws staged more than 2,700 walkouts across the country Friday.
Some took place in the Las Vegas valley, including at UNLV.
Of the other three who remember Trump coming into the dressing room, one said she was also undecided but would not vote for Trump, and another said she’s a Democrat.
A third said she was not voting for Trump and wouldn’t say more because “this is not about politics.” But, she added, “When he started running for president, that is one of the first things I thought about: Oh, gross, this guy walked in on us in the pageant.” Girls were “just scrambling to grab stuff,” she said, “whatever garments they had.”One of the other women who asked to be anonymous, who was 17, said, “At the time, you’re a teenager, you’re intimidated — it’s Donald Trump, he runs the pageant.” And it felt, she said, like “it was his given right” to enter the dressing rooms “because he owned the pageant.”She added, “We were all very young, but even at the time, it caught us funny.” Now, “as an adult and as a mother,” she said she finds it “absolutely inappropriate.”The third woman who asked to be anonymous was 15 at the time and said she was fully dressed and doing her makeup when Trump walked in.
The Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss Teen USA, declined to comment.
The 1997 teen pageant — Trump’s first as owner — was held on South Padre Island, Texas.
Two months ago, the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School claimed the lives of 17 people.
According to the students who walked out at UNLV, when it comes to gun laws in the United States, there is more that needs to be done.
Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”Three other women, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting engulfed in a media firestorm, also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing.