Donald Trump’s treatment of women is something that came up in the debate with Hillary Clinton. Clinton brought up Trump’s treatment of former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado after she won the crown in 1996. She apparently gained some weight after winning the crown. Trump at first seemed incredulous of the notion but then on Fox and Friends this morning, he doubled down on the talk. 

“She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. Not only that — her attitude. And we had a real problem with her.”

Andrew Kaczynski has more at Buzzfeed:

In fact, Trump made a huge spectacle of Machado’s weight gain after she won the competition in 1996. During a February 1997 interview with Howard Stern uncovered by BuzzFeed News, Trump laughed as Stern viciously mocked Machado for gaining weight. Trump called her “eating machine” and said “she ate a lot of everything.”

Stern introduces the topic by saying, “The Miss Universe, it turns out, the woman who won last year, blows up to a fat pig. I mean, like obese.”

Trump can be heard chuckling in the background as Stern recapped the events.

“You whipped this fat slob into shape,” Stern continued. “I don’t know how you did it. I see all these diet plans, everything else. God bless you. You whipped her into shape, and you held the whole pageant together. Congratulations.”

“Well, that was an amazing one,” Trump responded. “She went from 118 to almost 170.”

There is some dispute as to how much weight she gained at the time. Here is a photo of her at a time when the spectacle was being made of her losing weight (and when Trump invited the media to see her work out):

Whether she was bigger than this is not really the point. Trump just seems to have serious issues dealing with people who aren’t kissing his rear end 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Look how he responds to her being critical of the spectacle he made of her weight:

“I could just see Alicia Machado, the current Miss Universe, sitting there plumply. God, what problems I had with this woman,” Trump wrote in his 1997 book. “First, she wins. Second, she gains 50 pounds. Third, I urge the committee not to fire her. Fourth, I go to the gym with her, in a show of support. Final act: She trashes me in The Washington Post — after I stood by her the entire time. What’s wrong with this picture? Anyway, the best part about the evening was the knowledge that next year, she would no longer be Miss Universe.”

This will manifest itself in a problem for Trump because he can’t let anything go. He will likely spend the next 2-3 days attempting to “prove” he was right all along about what he said.

It’s almost as if Hillary set a trap. And Trump took the bait.

As for Trump…..he doesn’t have much room to talk.