How Trump Almost Wrecked The Symbol Of MAGA World
Last week the 2023 Miss USA was crowned and it is fitting to recall how trump, the great MAGA king, once gawked, owned and nearly destroyed the Miss Universe Organization, and its Miss USA Pageant.
No thanks to trump, the pageant survived and so did its poor cousins, the Miss Teen USA and Miss USA pageant, which last Friday, named 23-year-old Noeilia Voigt of Utah as the 2023 Miss USA. Voight, the first Venezuelan-American winner, will represent United States at the Miss Universe 2023 pageant on Nov. 18, 2023, in El Salvador.
A local girl, UmaSofia Srivastava of Parsippany, was named Miss Teen USA. Srivastava, 16, is a Junior at the Academy of St. Elizabeth. She is the Mexican-Indian Miss New Jersey Teen USA and hopes to become a UN ambassador.
The second runner-up, Alex Loomans, Miss Wisconsin USA, will surely make her home town of Waunakee and its 14,879 residents proud. Waunakee bills itself as “The Only Waunakee in the World.” Waunakee could have come up with a catchier motto.
Trump is an anachronism, beauty queens are an anachronism, the pageants are an anachronism, the nightmare of feminists, with their swimsuits and evening wear and crowns and special awards for most congenial. Trump also is an anachronism with his chauvinism and appeal to a time when America was “Father Knows Best,” “Ozzie and Harriet” and the Ku Klux Klan.
Anachronism is derived from the Greek word “anachronous,” which means “against time.” An anachronism is anything that is out of time and out of place, a perfect description of trump.
The troubles date back to long before trump was even a candidate for president, when he owned the the Miss Universe Organization, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.
For many years, the competitions were a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ trumpian dream. The productions were highlighted by young women in thick makeup, giving inane answers to inane interview questions and giggling in feigned happiness when a new queen was coronated.
For a quarter of a century, African Americans were barred from competing in the pageant when the rule was that “contestants must be of good health and of the white race.” African-Americans appeared in musical numbers as far back as 1923, when they were cast as slaves. The rule was abolished in 1950 but the first African American contestant wasn’t until 1970, when Cheryl Browne, Miss Iowa 1970, entered but didn’t win.
Vanessa Williams, Miss New York 1983, was the first African-American woman to win Miss America 1984. Williams later resigned under pressure due to a scandal involving nude photographs in the Penthouse magazine. Williams was one of five minority contestants that year. One of them, ballet dancer Deneen Graham, had a cross burned on her front yard because she was the first black Miss North Carolina in 1983.
In 1945, Bess Myerson became the first and only Jewish American winner to date. Myerson faced anti-Semitism as Miss America, leading to a cutback in her official duties. Myerson was encouraged by the pageant directors to change her name to “Bess Meredith” or “Beth Merrick” but she refused.
After winning the title, Myerson received few endorsements and later said she couldn’t stay in certain hotels where signs read, “no coloreds, no Jews, no dogs.”
Erin O’Flaherty was crowned Miss Missouri 2016, becoming the first openly lesbian Miss America contestant. In November 2022, Brían Nguyen was crowned Miss Greater Derry in New Hampshire, the first transgender titleholder under the Miss America organization.
Trump owned the franchise for nearly 20 years until, in 2015, he was forced to give up the pageant and the nearly 4,000 beauty queens that drew trump’s lascivious words and leers through two decades.
The immediate cause fo trump losing the franchise were his creepy comments in 2015 about Mexicans that drove away broadcasters NBC and Univision. The infamous trump speech came when he announced his candidacy in June 2015, with “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Soon after trump’s anti-Mexican comments, NBC cancelled all business relationships with trump and the Miss Universe Organization. As part of the legal settlement, in September 2015, Trump bought out NBC’s 50 percent stake in the company, making him the company’s sole owner. Three days later, trump sold the Miss Universe Organization to talent agency and entertainment company WME/IMG, a merger of the William Morris Agency and a Chinese subsidiary, Endeavor. In 2022, Jakapong “Anne” Jakrajutatip of Thailand, a transgender activist and CEO and biggest shareholder of JKN Global Group (JKN), bought the Miss Universe Organization for $20 million.
Trump’s crude theatrics continued on Oct. 7, 2016, when a video and article were published about then-presidential candidate and television host Billy Bush having “an extremely lewd conversation about women” in September 2005. Trump and Bush were on a bus on their way to film an episode of Access Hollywood, a show owned by NBCUniversal. In the video, Trump described his attempt to seduce a married woman and indicated he might start kissing a woman that he and Bush were about to meet. He added, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
And then came a series of allegations that trump entered the Miss Teen USA changing room where girls as young as 15 were in various states of undress.
“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” Mariah Billado, Miss Teen Vermont 1997 said in published reports. Former Miss Arizona Tasha Dixon said that trump entered the Miss USA dressing room in 2001 when she was a contestant.
“He just came strolling right in,” Dixon said. “There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked. Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half-naked changing into our bikinis.”
Dixon said Miss Universe Organization employees pressed contestants to heap attention on Trump.
“To have the owner come waltzing in, when we’re naked, or half-naked, in a very physically vulnerable position and then to have the pressure of the people that worked for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him, get his attention…” Dixon said.
Trump bragged about his inappropriate conduct in a 2005 interview on the Howard Stern show. “I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” trump said. “You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”
Trump was known to be coarse in his comments and attitudes toward contestants. In 1996, the future president mocked Miss Venezuela, Alicia Machado, the first Miss Universe since he bought the franchise. Machado said trump called her “Miss Piggy” because she gained weight and “Miss Housekeeping” because she’s Latina.
In 1997, trump spoke with reigning Miss Universe, Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee. She recalled trump asking her about the looks of his daughter, Ivanka, who was co-hosting the pageant. “‘Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?’” Mahealani Lee recalled trump saying.
That same year, Miss Utah, Temple Taggart, said trump kissed her without her consent.
“He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate,’” Taggart said.
In 2005, Trump told Stern about barging into the dressing room while the women were changing, but he declined to say if he had ever slept with a contestant.
“It could be a conflict of interest. … But, you know, it’s the kind of thing you worry about later, you tend to think about the conflict a little bit later on,” trump said, adding that, as the pageant owner, it might be his “obligation” to sleep with the contestants.
Trump’s habit has always been to drag everyone and everything down but the Miss USA pageant had its share of troubles, way before trump entered the picture.
Voigt, the new Miss USA, was crowned at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., on Friday night, broadcast live on the CW Network.
Back in January, Miss USA R’bonney Gabriel of Texas, was crowned Miss Universe 2022 at New Orleans Memorial Convention Center. Miss Netherlands, who didn’t win, was the first trans woman to win a pageant.
Gabriel won the 2022 Miss USA pageant amid claims made by some of her fellow contestants that the pageant had been “rigged” in her favor. The Miss Universe Organization opened an investigation in January 2022 and suspended then-Miss USA national director Crystle Stewart — winner of the 2008 Miss USA pageant — and her company, Miss Brands. There was no favoritism proven but Stewart resigned anyway.
The Miss America competition is not to confused with Miss USA, Miss World America, Miss U.S. International, Miss United States, Miss Earth United States, Miss Supranational USA, Miss Grand USA, or Miss América Latina.
There was a time when all America sat riveted in expectation on the edges of their chairs, while Bert Parks sang, “There She Is, Miss America,” as a new Miss America was named. Parks served as the host for the second televised pageant in 1955 and stayed as host until 1979, when he was unceremoniously dumped because the pageant wanted a fresher, younger look.
In 1990, viewership reached 20 million Americans. The Miss America 2005 pageant held on Sept. 18, 2004, was the last one televised live on ABC after it drew a record-low 9.8 million viewers.
The Miss America competition goes back to the 1920s when newspapers started crowning “Inter-City Beauties” and sending them to Atlantic City to compete in a variety of competitions aimed at boosting business.
Miss USA has been held annually since 1952. A former sponsor of Miss America, Catalina, pulled its support and created Miss USA after 1950 Miss America winner Yolanda Betbeze refused to pose for publicity pictures in swimwear.
Miss Universe contestants must be between 18 and 28 while in competition, while the Miss America Organization limits contenders to being between 17 and 25. Contestants cannot be married, pregnant, or mothers. At least one winner was stripped of her title. Leona Gage lost her Miss USA crown in less than 24 hours in 1957 after it was discovered that she was once divorced, twice married and the mother of two. She also had lied about her age.
Miss America made a slight effort to get with the times when the contest eliminated the swimsuit portion in 2018. Miss USA has stubbornly kept the bathing suits and evening gowns.
Miss USA/Miss Universe is a for-profit company while Miss America is a non-profit.
The winner of the Miss America pageant collects a $50,000 scholarship. Every contestant receives a scholarship, ranging from $3,000 for last place finishers to $25,000 for the first runner-up. Miss America travels around the country, making appearances, doing speaking engagements, performing charity work, and serving as the National Ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network.
Miss USA gets a year-long salary and her living expenses are covered by the organization. She is required to immediately relocate to New York, where she gets a rent-free, luxury apartment to use during her reign. She is represented by the entertainment agency WME/IMG and travels around the country and the world to make promotional appearances.
John Oliver’s show, “Last Week Tonight,” investigated the Miss America Organization’s claim in 2014 that it is “the world’s largest provider of scholarships for women.The report found that the organization only distributes a small fraction of its claimed “$45 million made available annually.”
In September 2015, Miss America officials said the organization granted $5.5 million in scholarships. In 2019, a lawyer for the Miss America Foundation put the number at $1.3 million to $1.4 million and said that 85 percent of the money is raised by contestants through solicitations from friends, family, and businesses.
A&E premiered a four-part documentary series, “Secrets of Miss America,” on July 10, 2023, which interviewed past winners, contestants and staff members about historical issues with the Miss America organization related to body-shaming, racism and “psychological warfare” against contestants and winners.
The first Miss America contest was held on Feb. 1, 1919, at the Chu Chin Chow Ball at the Hotel des Artistes in New York City. The winner, Edith Hyde Robbins Macartney, was called “Miss America”
The current Miss America Pageant was held a year later in Atlantic City. Margaret Gorman, Miss District of Columbia, was declared “The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America” in 1921 at the age of 16 and was recognized as the first “Miss America.”
The event was designed to entice business to the boardwalk while the main attractions were the young “maidens” who sat in the rolling chairs, led by a Miss Ernestine Cremona, who was dressed in a flowing white robe and represented “Peace.”
The first contest on Sept. 8, 1921, drew 100,000 people who gathered at the Boardwalk to watch contestants from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Ocean City, Camden, Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia.
Gorman won the first Miss America beauty pageant after being crowned Miss District of Columbia in 1921. She later said the crown was pretty meaningless.
“I never cared to be Miss America. It wasn’t my idea. I am so bored by it all. I really want to forget the whole thing,” Gorman said.
Gorman died at 90 and in her obituary in the New York Times, Gorman said her husband “hated” the beauty queen label.
“I did too,” Gorman said.