Comedian and TV presenter Ruby Wax has described her 2000 limousine encounter with Donald Trump as one of the most excruciating moments of her career, revealing crude locker-room talk that left her feeling like a trapped mouse.
A Harrowing Encounter in Trump's Limousine
During Trump's initial White House campaign in June 2000, Wax met the New York property tycoon while filming her successful televised interview series. She recounts how, travelling in the back of the future president's limousine, she was subjected to crude talk for which he has become infamous.
Wax told the Daily Telegraph: "He was trying to gross me out, talking about how he treats women and likes threesomes." Rather than allowing herself to be intimidated, she chose to fight back by concocting stories of what she enjoyed doing with women in bed. In response, Trump replied: "Oh, respect."
Fighting Back Against Intimidation
Wax clarified she felt she had no alternative: "I knew I had to become one of them, to match the locker-room talk. But really I was scared s***less. I was like a trapped little mouse and he was playing with me like a cat."
At the start of their encounter, as she was presented to Trump aboard his private aircraft, she admitted she wasn't certain they would click, remarking it "wasn't a match made in heaven." The businessman demanded the BBC cameras be switched off while he applied some makeup, before the interview resumed.
Trump's Disparaging Remarks and Presidential Ambitions
In the programme's opening, Trump characterised Wax in disparaging terms, informing his associates: "She's a reporter for BBC, she's the world's most obnoxious reporter. You know this woman? Big reporter in England. She means nothing over here."
During that period, Trump served as promoter of the Miss USA beauty contest, calling it "the perfect opportunity to look at beautiful girls and make money at the same time." One contestant, when asked if she would date Trump, refused, saying she wouldn't "because he's 80," although he was in fact only 54 at the time.
Taxpayer Savings and Political Moves
Wax questioned Trump about his presidential ambitions: "You have a plane, you have this great life that anybody would want to have why would you want to run for president?" Trump responded that because he already owned a jet, he could save the US taxpayer money: "We wouldn't need Air Force One think of how the tax payers would benefit by that," he said, before telling Wax she was "a very attractive woman."
He added: "I respect women, I adore women and I go out with women and I do it with respect." Trump pulled out of the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries in February of that year, shortly after the interview was recorded, and later backed Democrat representative Edolphus Towns.
Anticipating that Melania could be a future First Lady, Wax cheekily introduced her to the programme, explaining: "Melania Knauss may be the hottest, biggest supermodel ever to come out of Slovenia." At the programme's conclusion, a caption informed viewers that Trump and Melania were "no longer together," although their separation was brief.
