Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

Amid ongoing scrutiny of President Donald Trump and his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case, newly unearthed video shows Trump taking part as a judge in a beauty pageant that featured models as young as 14 years old.

The video in question shows Trump as one of 10 judges in Elite Model Agency’s 1991 “Look of the Year” competition. Within the video, young women and girls walk in front of Trump and others in order to be judged on both their looks and “personality,” according to the narrator.

A Guardian investigation published in 2020 found that the competition was “used by founder John Casablancas and others to engage in sexual relationships with vulnerable young models, some of whom were teenagers.” Trump was not among those who were accused of such actions, but his behavior during similar pageants, recollected by those who had participated in them, has sparked renewed concerns regarding his treatment of women.

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

Contestants have recalled that they were “encouraged to parade downstairs, one by one,........

© Truthout