Miss Universe President Speaks Out on ‘Surprising’ Trump Fallout

Donald Trump‘s comments on Mexican immigrant rapists and criminals ended up hurting the Miss USA pageant after Univision and NBC backed out of airing it. Trump’s organization and NBC jointly own Miss Universe, and the woman in the center of all of this is speaking out.

Miss Universe Organization president Paula Shugart spoke to Entertainment Weekly about this “surprising” turn of events and how they’re just “a little company that happens to have been caught between two behemoths.”

While not distancing the organization from Trump, Shugart did note that Trump hasn’t really spoken to them or done much with them in the past few months.

She said that for now, the Miss USA pageant will just be streaming online, though they’re “shopping other options.”

Shugart also fielded a question about Hispanic viewership following what Trump said:

“All we can do is give the show that our fans have always liked. We’ve always had great fans in the Hispanic community. If somebody doesn’t want to watch us, that’s going to be their prerogative. All I can do in our current frame is operate, get the show on, and put it on for anybody that wants to see it. I certainly hope they’ll tune in. It will be a great show and it will be great for the contestants.”

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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