A former Playboy Playmate claims she engaged in a year-long affair with President Donald Trump, during which he used his money and power to get her into bed, and later to keep her quiet.
Karen McDougal opened up to The New Yorker about her alleged involvement with Trump, which began when they met at the Playboy Mansion in 2006.
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She said Trump took an immediate liking to her and that others took notice; she recalled that a Playboy marketing executive joked, “Wow, he was all over you — I think you could be his next wife.”
While Trump and McDougal were becoming acquainted at the party, his third wife Melania was at their home in New York with the couple’s then 3-month-old son Barron. But despite his marriage and having an infant at home, she said Trump invited her to have dinner in his private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
After the meal, McDougal said she and Trump had their first sexual encounter and afterward, he offered to give her money.
“I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks — I’m not that girl. I slept w/you because I like you — NOT for money.’ He told me, ‘you are special,’” she wrote in her journal after the alleged incident.
McDougal, a model who was named Playmate of the Year in 1998, said she was drawn to Trump’s personality above his money or other traits.
“I was so nervous! I was into his intelligence + charm. Such a polite man,” she wrote in a journal entry. She added that she was also impressed that the businessman and celebrity never drank alcohol.
Following their initial encounter, McDougal says she and Trump continued to meet up any time he was in Los Angeles, which was frequent during his run on The Apprentice. They would meet at the same bungalow each time, she said.
Soon after, though, McDougal claims they began to take their relationship outside the Beverly Hills Hotel. She said she met Trump’s children, was given a tour of his New York City home and began flying around the country to meet up with the future President.
For one of their meetups, McDougal said she attended the Lake Tahoe golf tournament — the same place where Trump allegedly began an affair with Stormy Daniels in the same year.
She said their relationship began to fall apart when Trump made racially-charged comments about her friendship with an African-American man, causing her to question his character. She said she also worried what her mother would think about her lifestyle.
In total, the affair lasted 10 months, she said, and 10 years after they parted ways, McDougal claims she found herself silenced after signing a $150,000 deal with American Media Inc., a media company owned by Trump’s friend David Pecker.
The Playmate sold her story to the National Enquirer, owned by AMI, but the tabloid never published her story, according to an investigative report by the Wall Street Journal.
Rather than use her contract for the exclusive publishing rights to her story, they used it instead to operate as a non-disclosure agreement to keep McDougal silent following the transaction in August, the report revealed.
American Media Inc. claimed the $150,000 was payment for exclusive life rights to any story related to a relationship McDougal may have had with a married man, and for fitness columns she wrote.
The contract, according to the Wall Street Journal, kept McDougal from disclosing her story on other outlets and established damages of at least $150,000 if she detailed her account anywhere else.
“AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr Trump,” the company said in the statement following the accusations. CEO Pecker also acknowledged his close friendship with Trump, but he denied that the publication has worked alongside him for its content selection, citing the Enquirer’s prior coverage of Trump’s affair with Marla Maples.
McDougal told The New Yorker she is nervous to move forward with sharing her story, but she was inspired to come forward after Daniels made her alleged affair public.
Trump continues to deny all allegations of affairs with both McDougal and Daniels.
“This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal,” a White House spokesperson maintained.
Photo Credit: Instagram / @karenmcdougal
