8 Revelations from Trump's uncovered Howard Stern interviews

Nothing has changed. He was a pig then, and he's a pig now.

Published September 29, 2017 6:00AM (EDT)

Howard Stern arrives for an "America's Got Talent" taping at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 4, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)  (Charles Sykes/invision/ap)
Howard Stern arrives for an "America's Got Talent" taping at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 4, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP) (Charles Sykes/invision/ap)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

AlterNet

It’s fitting that Donald Trump has been interviewed more times by Howard Stern than by any other television or radio personality. Stern’s program has always been a place where crude talk wasn’t just welcome but celebrated, and the real estate mogul and reality television star fit in perfectly. The show offered a forum where Trump, who always welcomes an opportunity to talk about money, women or his favorite subject—himself—could speak freely to an audience that enjoys that kind of thing.

In recent years, recordings of Stern's show have surfaced in which Trump boasted of leering at his Miss Universe pageant contestants. He also agreed that his daughter is a "piece of ass," and admitted to describing women’s genitalia as "expensive." In other words, he was himself.

Newsweek has recently come into possession of 15 hours of Trump audio from the show, and it’s all in the same vein, whether he's discussing giving Princess Diana an HIV test or admitting that Ivanka and Don Jr. attempted to cut Tiffany out of the will. Newsweek has called the cache of tapes a “rich, Freudian case study, a gold mine for anyone trying to understand the president of the United States." For his part, Howard Stern has previously said that resurfaced Trump audio clips reflect “who Trump is. He was always bombastic. He always rated women. He always talked in a misogynistic, sexist kind of way . . . proudly and out in the open . . . "

Here are eight nauseating new revelations from the audio tapes.

1. He boasted about feeling Melania up in public.

On a segment that aired in 1999, Trump semi-boasted about groping his then-girlfriend in public, and choosing her the way one might select a tender cut of meat.

Stern: Have you ever felt her up in public?

Trump: Yeah . . . I'm very well behaved, actually, and almost always I'm very down the middle.

Stern: How did you meet this supermodel?

Trump: I met her at a very big party in New York. And she was there along with other supermodels, and I greeted all of them, and I said, that's the one that's the most beautiful.

2. He once claimed he’d leave a lot of money to charity.

Asked about his will and where his money would go when he died, Trump claimed that, along with caring for his kids, he’d make sure his estate went to plenty of worthy causes. “Charity gets a lot,” Trump said, without breaking into laughter. “Yeah, I'm going to give [my kids] Trump Online University . . . I’m going to give a lot to charity and I’m going to give a lot to the kids.”

Trump University turned out not just to be another failed business venture, but a judge effectively determined it a fraudulent enterprise. More absurd is the notion that Trump would engage in any kind of philanthropy. In the past, Trump has lied about giving to charities benefiting numerous causes, from veterans to terminally ill children. (In fact, he can’t seem to get enough of screwing over sick kids.) There’s no way he’s donating loads of money to charity upon his death. It’ll be a miracle if his will doesn't dictate that everything he owns be buried with him.

3. Just days after her death, he went on a whole spiel about Anna Nicole Smith’s looks.

On the Feb. 12, 2007 episode of the show—just four days after Smith was found dead of an accidental overdose in a Florida hotel room—Trump chose to creepily weigh in, at length, about her face, body and hair.

“When she came to New York, I saw Anna Nicole Smith the first day or week that she was in New York. She was 6 feet tall. She had the best body. She had the best face. She had the best hair I've ever seen. You know, hair is my thing. I'm really into hair up right now, okay? And she has the most beautiful. I mean, she had the best hair, but she had the best face and the best body. You said [she had] the best face. She had the best body."

4. The many times he offered his unsolicited opinions on women.

In several interviews, Trump and Stern talked about famous women and rated their physical appearances.

Angelina Jolie? "Her lips are too big" and rated her "a solid 7,” adding that “a 7 is not a 10.” Kim Kardashian? “She’s got a huge trunk . . . it’s seriously big.” He called Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods’ ex-wife, “a solid 9,” noting she didn’t get a perfect score because “10 is very, very sacred territory.” Halle Berry? "I love her upper body.” Asked about Charlize Theron, he said “Ivanka is much better-looking than her."

5. He gave a monologue about how hot his daughter is.

During a 2004 appearance on the show, Trump delivered a monologue about Ivanka that probably feels yuckier with hindsight, thanks to his long and gross record of saying skeezy things about his own daughter.

“She's 6 feet tall,” Trump says on the recording. “She's got the best body. She made a lot of money as a model. A tremendous amount and then she went cold turkey and gave it all up because she had to go to college because I wanted her to go to college. She goes to the best college sort and she goes to Wharton and she's got straight As and she's one of them. She's considered one of the most beautiful women. And she really is—she is like a great beauty.”

6. He suggested being smart and pretty could be a problem for a woman.

Not long after his new reality show launched, Trump discussed how women contestants should maybe be hot or really brainy, but never both at the same time.

“Now the women did use their sex appeal, and they're like incredibly beautiful,” Trump stated. “Of the women, there are some that are just unbelievable — like supermodel beauty, in addition to having a 200 IQ, and that maybe is negative. A beautiful woman that's that smart. That could be a negative, Howard. I don't know. You tell me.”

7. He referred to himself as The Best Tweeter.

The man currently trying to tweet us into a nuclear war once talked about how great he is at social media, because self-awareness is the opposite of Trumpiness.

Trump: You know I have this huge Twitter thing going . . . Would you tell your listeners? They’re all saying it’s the best.

Howard: Are you the best tweeter?

Trump: They say I’m the best tweeter . . . Because I’m controversial and I’m honest. I don’t even think I’m controversial. I’m very honest.

8. He boasted about being an aloof father who doesn’t spend quality time with his kids.

Here’s Trump in 2004 talking about what a stellar dad he is, except for the parenting part:

“I've been a good father—a really good father,” Trump stated. “But I've never been that involved. Like, if they ever said, ‘Come on outside, dad. Let's have a catch in Central Park.’ I'd say, excuse me, what?


By Kali Holloway

Kali Holloway is the senior director of Make It Right, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She co-curated the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts 2017 summer performance and film series, “Theater of the Resist.” She previously worked on the HBO documentary Southern Rites, PBS documentary The New Public and Emmy-nominated film Brooklyn Castle, and Outreach Consultant on the award-winning documentary The New Black. Her writing has appeared in AlterNet, Salon, the Guardian, TIME, the Huffington Post, the National Memo, and numerous other outlets.

MORE FROM Kali Holloway


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Alternet Celebrity Donald Trump Entertainment Howard Stern Media Misogyny Politics Potus Radio