We brought you breaking news last night of three different women who say Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attacked them. Now, another woman has told her story: former People magazine writer, Natasha Stoynoff.
He Was ‘Forcing His Tongue Down My Throat’
Natasha Stoynoff was assigned to Trump for People magazine in the early 2000s. If there was a Trump story, she was there. She was a guest at his wedding to Melania, chatted with both Donald and Melania frequently, and had a professional, cordial relationship with them.
Then, in December, 2005, everything changed.
Stoynoff traveled to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s sprawling Palm Beach estate, to cover the Trumps’ first wedding anniversary. She writes:
“When we took a break for the then-very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one ‘tremendous’ room in particular, he said, that I just had to see …
We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.
Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.”
According to Stoynoff, she tried to remain professional after Trump attacked her, but was shaken, her “self-esteem crashed to zero.”
After the butler left the room, Stoynoff, then seated in a chair opposite Trump, writes:
“Trump smiled and leaned forward.
‘You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?’ he declared, in the same confident tone he uses when he says he’s going to make America great again. ‘Have you ever been to Peter Luger’s for steaks? I’ll take you. We’re going to have an affair, I’m telling you.’ He also referenced the infamous cover of the New York Post during his affair with Marla Maples.
‘You remember,’ he said. ‘”Best Sex I Ever Had.”‘”
Stoynoff says Trump’s demeanor changed immediately once Melania returned to the room, and he continued the interview “as if nothing had happened.”
The next day, Stoynoff decided to keep a scheduled appointment she’d had with the massage therapist at Mar-a-Lago. She showed up only to learn from the therapist that Trump had been waiting there for her. She left early and headed for the airport.
‘Like Many Women … I Blamed Myself’
We hear it time and time again. Women blaming themselves when they are attacked is a product of rape culture.
Stoynoff writes:
“But, like many women, I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (‘It’s not like he raped me…’); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted PEOPLE feature killed.
‘I just want to forget it ever happened,’ I insisted. The happy anniversary story hit newsstands a week later and Donald left me a voicemail at work, thanking me.
‘I think you’re terrific,’ he said, ‘the article was great and you’re great.’
Yeah, I thought. I’m great because I kept my mouth shut.”
After Trump attacked her, Stoynoff asked to be removed from the assignment. She saw him once or twice and avoided him. She says she actually bumped into Melania at one point and wondered what Melania knew as they engaged in polite, if stilted, conversation.
Though she only told a few people of the incident at the time, she decided to break her silence after she watched Trump say, in the second presidential debate, that he had never actually done the things that he talked about in the now-infamous 2005 Access Hollywood video.
She kept hearing the remarks dismissed as “locker room talk.” She writes:
“I’m not sure what locker room talk consists of these days. I only know that I wasn’t in a locker room when he pushed me against a wall. I was in his home, as a professional, and his beautiful pregnant wife was just upstairs.
Talk is talk. But it wasn’t just talk in my case, it was very much action.”
The Trump campaign has, of course, denied that Trump attacked Stoynoff.
But it’s certainly starting to sound like a trend.
Featured Image via screengrab from YouTube video
