Former Miss Universe Alicia thanks supporters after Trump insults

Former beauty queen Alicia Machado stepped out in Los Angeles on Saturday (October 1) night and thanked people for their support after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump escalated his attacks on her.

Trump on Friday made a number of predawn Twitter posts in which he made a vague and unsubstantiated allegation about a sex tape featuring Machado that prompted Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to denounce him as “unhinged.”

Trump’s refusal to drop his invective against Machado, the Miss Universe he criticized for gaining weight after she won the crown in 1996, threatened to damage his already weak standing among women and Hispanics.

“I love you all, I love you all. And that you very much for all the people that are supporting me right now. Thank you,” Machado told reporters at the Metropolitan Fashion Week closing gala.

With less than six weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election, Trump made reference – without giving evidence – to a sex tape involving the Venezuelan-born Machado, who had publicly denounced him all week as a humiliating bully. His attacks provided critics with new fodder to question his temperament for the White House.

“Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?” Trump said in his Twitter messages in the early hours of Friday. He did not elaborate on his allegations beyond saying that the Clinton campaign was unaware of the beauty queen’s past and had been “duped” by her.

Politico reported that Machado has starred in racy reality TV programs and posed naked for Playboy’s Mexican version, but said media outlets have found no evidence that she has starred in pornographic films.

Machado, now a U.S. citizen, dismissed the fresh attacks with a message on Instagram, calling them “cheap lies” from a man intent on defaming her.