Trump wanted unattractive women fired, golf club workers say
This has been a week of setbacks for the Trump campaign's efforts to woo women voters.
On the heels of Monday's debate in which Hillary Clinton attacked Trump for his alleged treatment of a former Miss Universe comes a report that Donald Trump only wanted to see young, attractive women when he visited the restaurant at Trump National Golf Club in Racho Palos Verdes, Calif. The allegations are made by former employees of the golf club in court documents related to a 2012 lawsuit published by The Los Angeles Times Thursday.
Former director of catering Hayle Strozier said she witnessed "Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were 'not pretty enough' and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women."
Strozier said that in 2003, Vincent Stellio, a company vice president, told her to fire an employee because "Mr. Trump doesn't like fat people."
Strozier and other managers adopted a policy of staffing only attractive women when Trump would come to visit, which was no more than four or five times a year, according to the court documents.
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Former restaurant manager Charles West said he "heard from other colleagues not only that Mr. Trump preferred employing good-looking young people but also that he did not like seeing employees who were old or fat."
West said he once witnessed Trump ask for a "young, attractive hostess working" to be brought over to where he was meeting with a group of men. "See you don't have to go to Hollywood to find beautiful women," Trump told his guests, according to West. West also said Trump turned to the hostess and asked her "Do you like Jewish men?"
Another former restaurant manager, Sue Kwiatkowski, said Trump once took her aside and said "I want you to get some good-looking hostesses here. People like to see good-looking people when they come in."
John Marlo, a former waiter at the golf club said he once saw an employee who had been visibly crying. When he asked her what was wrong, she said a manager had told her that she couldn't be a waitress because "she had acne on her face."
A Trump Organization attorney called the allegations "meritless" in a statement to The Times.
The employees' declarations were made in a lawsuit against one of Trump's development companies that focused on the lack of breaks workers were allowed to take for rest and for meals.
The "bulk" of the lawsuit was settled in 2013 for $475 million as part of a deal where the company would not have to admit to any wrongdoing, according to The Times.
The publication of the documents comes as Trump finds himself embroiled in controversy over his alleged treatment of a former Miss Universe. Alicia Machado said Trump chastised her for her weight gain, calling her "Miss Piggy," which contributed to her development of an eating disorder.
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The two reports of bias against overweight female employees are problematic for Trump because they feed an existing perception of him as being disrespectful to women. Trump has called women "fat pigs" and "dogs" and was widely criticized for using sexist language in last year's feud with Fox News host Megyn Kelly.