Book Says Trump Would Cut Miss Universe Contestants Who Were 'Too Ethnic'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA)   -- A new book about Donald Trump and his rise to power says that when he ran the Miss Universe pageant, he would often eliminate contestants who were "too ethnic" or women who "snubbed his advances."

The book is called "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story Of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump."

Excerpts of the book -- written by journalists Michael Isikoff and David Corn -- were published on Yahoo News and Mother Jones on Thursday.

"He often thought a woman was too ethnic or too dark-skinned," a pageant staffer said ,"he had a particular type of woman he thought was a winner. Others were too ethnic."

The staffer also claimed Trump would eliminate contestants who snubbed his advances.

"He liked a type," the staffer said. "There was Olivia Culpo, Dayanara Torres (the 1993 winner) ,and, no surprise, East European women."

Trump sold his rights to the pageant after incendiary and racial comments about Mexicans caused NBC and a host of companies to cut ties with him.

The book also alleged that despite their being judges for the pageant, Trump would have the final say and push women he liked personally.

The authors also quoted staffers who said Trump would cut women of color if he thought the pageant had "too many."

The Washington Post reported that Trump wrote Vladimir Putin a personal note begging him to attend the 2013 pageant.  Putin did not show up and it's not known if he received the letter. It was during this trip that Trump allegedly engaged in "perverted" sexual acts with women at a Moscow hotel room, according to the dossier put together by ex-British spy Christopher Steele.

In:
• Donald Trump