A recently resurfaced video shows now-President Donald Trump as one of the judges in a 1991 Elite Modeling “Look of the Year” competition, which featured models in their teens.
The video began making the rounds after “Meidas Touch” podcast host Ben Meiselas shared it in a July 18 post on X. In the video, Trump can be seen sitting at a table with judges, who take notes and ask the models questions, as well as instructing the models on how to pose for them.
Elite Modeling Management, which has put on the Elite Model Look modeling competition since 1983, has been the subject of intense scrutiny for alleged misconduct. The Guardian found numerous allegations of sexual assault in 2020, including allegations that Elite Modeling founder John Casablancas used the competitions to exploit teenage models. Trump himself has not been charged, nor have similar allegations been leveled against him.
In a 2005 interview with radio host Howard Stern, Trump admitted to going into the changing rooms of contestants before competitions. He claimed to be “inspecting” the contestants. “And you see these incredible looking women,” he continued, “I sort of get away with things like that.”
The video has come up again at a time of increasing controversy regarding the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called “Epstein Files.”
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An increasingly angry Trump has called the scandal a “hoax” and referred to some of his own supporters as “weaklings” for demanding more information from the federal investigation into Epstein. Following a Wall Street Journal report that alleged Trump sent a 50th birthday card to Epstein, the president sued the Journal’s owner, conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, for libel, claiming the letter was fabricated.
But many news outlets are now revisiting Trump’s previously known ties to Epstein, who was charged with sex trafficking minors but died by suicide during Trump’s first term.
Over the weekend, a report from the New York Times found that, in 1992, Trump hosted a so-called “calendar girl” modeling competition at his Mar-a-Lago estate, with Epstein “the only other guest.” Jill Harth, then-girlfriend and business partner of the event’s organizer, claimed that Trump forcibly kissed her in a bedroom and restrained her, preventing her from leaving. Harth sued Trump for sexual misconduct but dropped her case in 1997. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
The allegations, however, come after Trump was found liable for sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Caroll in a dressing room in 1996. Trump was ordered to pay $5 million to Caroll, on top of an $83 million defamation judgment. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations and appealed the defamation verdict; that appeal was rejected last December.
