Before former President Donald Trump tore through American politics as the ultimate disruptor, reconfiguring the Republican Party with a “move fast and break things” style that brought to mind the Silicon Valley credo of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Trump was a real estate developer, a casino owner, a TV star and a beauty pageant owner, among other gigs.
In each of these roles Trump was largely non-partisan — liberal high-rollers were as welcome to lose their money in Trump casinos as conservative ones; Trump developed huge projects in New York City, among the most liberal cities in America; the left and the right were welcome to watch The Apprentice, whose guests also spanned the political spectrum.
Trump was even liberal-minded enough — or pragmatic enough — to donate to Hillary Clinton‘s New York senate campaign. (Trump even gave money to Kamala Harris before he became politically active.)
But it wasn’t just Trump’s money that supported liberal causes in the bygone days before he invented MAGA and stocked the Supreme Court with conservatives. As the owner of the Miss Universe pageants circa 2012, Trump had a vision that transgender contestants should be allowed to compete, despite objections from more conservative thinkers.
After a decision by Miss Universe Canada to reject a contestant named Jenna Talackova, who had undergone gender-reassignment surgery just four years before she entered the competition at age 23, Trump reportedly intervened personally to get the decision reversed and allow Talackova to compete.
The pageant had booted Talackova out, saying she had falsified data about being born a female at birth. But Trump said she should be allowed to compete, based on the laws of Canada and the U.S. and following the guidelines of the Olympics at the time.
He also appreciated the attention the controversy brought to his enterprise. “It has become a hot subject…being talked about all over the world right now,” Trump said at the time, acutely aware — then as now — that attention is currency.
Talackova was allowed to compete and, though she didn’t win, the eventual Miss Universe Olivia Culpo said Talackova’s participation was “fair” even though people would be a little “apprehensive because there is a tradition of natural-born women.”
Trump praised Culpo for giving a “great answer” to the question about transgender participation. Culpo said “I do accept that because I believe it’s a free country.”
Even the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD praised Trump at the time, saying:
“For more than two weeks, the Miss Universe Organization and Mr. Trump made it clear to GLAAD that they were open to making a policy change to include women who are transgender. We appreciate that he and his team responded swiftly and appropriately.”
GLAAD
🇳🇱 | Por primera vez, la ganadora de Miss Holanda es transgénero. pic.twitter.com/XUbC0dXaHR
— Alerta News 24 (@AlertaNews24) July 10, 2023
This week in Holland, Donald Trump’s forward-thinking vision of open competition between female-born women and transgender women in the pageant world became a reality when Rikkie Kollé became the first openly trans pageant contestant to win the title of Miss Netherlands. Kollé will next represent The Netherlands in Miss Universe 2023.
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