Miss USA Winner Calls Out Trump's Rehearsal Visit as Deeply Uncomfortable

When Nia Sanchez was preparing for her reign as Miss USA 2014, she expected to focus on perfecting her walk, nailing her interviews, and representing Nevada on the national stage. What she didn’t expect was to feel uncomfortable and disrespected during what should’ve been a professional rehearsal—all because the man who owned the Miss USA/Miss Universe organization at the time decided to turn it into a spectator sport for his golf buddies.

Speaking on Amanda Hirsch’s“Not Skinny But Not Fat”podcast, the 36-year-old reality star from The Valley opened up about an awkward encounter that stuck with her. During rehearsals, Donald Trump brought a group of his older male friends to watch the contestants perform. The casual nature of the invitation masked something that made Nia and the other women feel anything but at ease. Men would apparently ask the contestants to pose for pictures, crossing boundaries without asking permission first. It wasn’t aggressive or overtly predatory—it was just the kind of casual disrespect that women in pageants have been navigating for decades, dressed up in the language of networking and fun.

Nia didn’t let it slide. When one of Trump’s guests tried to put his hands on her without consent, she deliberately pulled away and set a boundary: Don’t ever put your hands on me without asking. It’s a moment that captures something important about the pageant industry during that era—the power imbalance between the women competing and the men controlling the space, the assumption that access to these women’s bodies and time was part of the deal.

Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization until 2015, so this interaction happened during his final years of stewardship. For Nia, who went on to finish as first runner-up at Miss Universe 2014 and built a successful career through brand partnerships and social media, the memory serves as a stark reminder of what it cost to compete in that world. These days, she channels her earnings from sponsorships into travel and family experiences while her husband Danny Booko handles household necessities—a financial arrangement that speaks to the real value her pageant platform created, even if the environment that launched it left a bad taste.

The podcast appearance comes as The Valley (which features Nia and her husband) continues to air, keeping her in the public eye and giving her a platform to reflect on her past on her own terms. Us Weekly has reached out to Miss USA for comment, though the story raises broader questions about accountability in pageant culture that remain unresolved.