Petty. Manipulative. Misogynistic. Donald Trump proves again and again that all those descriptors are accurate reflections of his character.
Actress Salma Hayek recently recounted her own experience with Republican nominee Donald Trump after she rejected his attempts to date her. Sitting down with the radio show “El Show del Mandril,” Hayek shared her unequivocal belief in the spate of women coming forward to speak out against Trump’s unwanted advances.
“When I met that man,” she told the program, “I had a boyfriend, and he (Trump) tried to become his friend to get my home telephone number. He got my number and he would call me to invite me out,” she said. Hayek went on to recount how, after turning The Donald down by telling him that she wouldn’t date him even if she didn’t have a boyfriend, someone called a tip in to the National Enquirer. She believes it was Trump himself who made the call. “He wouldn’t say he called, but someone told the National Enquirer,” she says.
Of course the Enquirer’s story twisted the details of what really happened. Rather than a story about Hayek’s rejection of Trump, the magazine reported that Hayek had been the one rejected because “she was too short for Trump to date.” Trump seized upon the opportunity and once again called Hayek with an offer to take her out to prove that the story was wrong.
Trump left a message for Hayek. “Can you believe this? Who would say this? I don’t want people to think this about you.” Hayek saw through his pathetic attempt. “He thought I would try to go out with him so people wouldn’t think that’s why he wouldn’t go out with me.”
She once again refused his offer, but it did not put an end to Trump’s desire to date her. Some years later, Donald Trump used $120,000 from the Trump Foundation charity funds to purchase an opportunity to have a fancy dinner with Salma Hayek. The dinner never happened since Hayek, who was married by then, insisted that her husband also be in attendance at the dinner.
Trump may try to pass off his view of entitlement toward women as “locker room talk,” but Salma Hayek’s account is one more example of his childish and manipulative behavior. Planting a false story in order to date a beautiful woman is pathetic and coercive. Hayek stands with Trump’s other accusers as evidence that Trump cannot be trusted.