Former Pageant Insider Reframes Long-Running Questions About Donald Trump’s Conduct
For years, scrutiny of Donald Trump’s past has often centered on high-profile scandals, leaked recordings, or associations with controversial figures. Now, a former insider from the beauty pageant world is arguing that a different, more visible record deserves renewed attention: Trump’s two-decade ownership and hands-on involvement in major beauty pageants.
Between the mid-1990s and 2015, Trump owned the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants. He was not merely a financier. In multiple interviews, including a widely circulated 2005 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Trump openly described going backstage while contestants were changing, saying his status as owner allowed him access that others did not have. At the time, those remarks were largely treated as crude humor. In hindsight, former contestants and pageant officials say, they warrant closer examination.
One of those voices is Tasha Dixon, who was Miss Arizona and competed in the Miss USA pageant in 2001. Dixon, who was 18 at the time, has described an incident in which Trump entered a dressing area while contestants were partially undressed. In interviews, she has said the experience was unsettling not only because of the physical vulnerability of the moment, but because of the power imbalance. Trump owned the pageant, and staff members, she recalled, encouraged contestants to approach him and engage positively. “Who do you complain to?” Dixon has asked. “Everyone worked for him.”
Similar accounts have surfaced over the years from other former contestants, describing backstage environments in which Trump’s presence was treated as normal, even when it made participants uncomfortable. Critics argue that the structure of the pageants — with no independent oversight or clear channels for complaints — left young women with little ability to object without risking their futures.
The latest push to revisit these stories comes from Steve Seabold, a former judge and trainer for Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants. In a public statement that has circulated widely online, Seabold said journalists have been looking in the wrong places for answers about Trump’s behavior. The “smoking gun,” he argued, is not hidden in secret documents or travel records, but “in plain sight” within the pageant system Trump controlled for years.
Seabold has not released documents or given formal interviews, citing personal safety concerns. Instead, he has pointed reporters toward individuals who worked closely with the pageants, including television hosts and production staff, suggesting they may have witnessed or heard things that never reached public view. His tone has been cautious rather than accusatory, emphasizing patterns and systems rather than specific criminal allegations.
Taken individually, Trump’s comments about women, pageants, and access were often dismissed as tasteless bravado. During the 2016 campaign, however, renewed attention fell on his treatment of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom he publicly insulted, and on older interviews in which he joked about relationships with models and playmates. Viewed together, critics say, these episodes depict a consistent approach to power and boundaries.
There is no new criminal charge arising from these pageant-era accounts, and none of the allegations described establish a direct legal link to other scandals Trump has faced. But advocates argue that revisiting this history matters, particularly in light of broader conversations about consent, institutional power, and accountability.
As Seabold and others frame it, the question is not only about one man’s behavior, but about systems that normalized it. Whether this renewed focus leads to further investigation remains uncertain. What is clear is that a chapter of Trump’s past long treated as background color is once again drawing scrutiny — this time, not as rumor, but as a pattern that was always visible to those who knew where to look.
