Trump: I saved former Miss Universe’s job ‘and look what I get out of it’

by Rebecca Savransky - 09/28/16 8:27 PM ET

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday said he saved the job of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado after the company wanted to fire her because she had gained weight.

{mosads}Faced with backlash from his reported comments and treatment of Machado when he owned the Miss Universe organization, Trump insisted that he hardly knew her in an appearance on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” Wednesday.

Trump said Machado, a woman from Venezuela who won the Miss Universe title in 1996, the same year the real estate mogul bought the company, did “not do well” and “had a lot of difficulties.”

“And you know, they wanted to fire her. The company itself wanted to fire her. I saved her job,” he said.

Trump reiterated he had very little interaction with the former Miss Universe, noting if you “added up all the time I spoke to her, it’s probably less than five minutes.”

“I had nothing to do with this person, but they wanted to fire her. I saved her job. … You know what happened, look what I get out of it. I get nothing,” Trump said.

The GOP nominee said the organization wanted to fire Machado for “putting on so much weight.”

“And it is a beauty contest,” Trump said.

“Say what you want, but, I mean, they know what they’re getting into. It’s a beauty contest. And I said, ‘Don’t do that. Let her try and lose the weight.’ Can you imagine I end up in a position like this?”

Trump also said it was a cheap shot for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to bring up the issue during Monday night’s presidential debate.

“I helped somebody and this is what you get for helping somebody,” Trump said. “But I just don’t know her.”

Clinton used Machado as an example in what she said is a pattern of sexism from Trump.

“One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest … and he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy,’ then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name,” Clinton said. “Her name is Alicia Machado, and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”

Trump said Tuesday that the pageant winner “gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.” Machado has said that Trump, pressuring her about her weight, invited reporters to watch her working out.

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