Donald Trump says woman who claimed he raped her is 'not my type'

Ben Riley-Smith
Donald Trump, the US president, has denied the historic allegation of sexual assault  - Getty Images North America
Donald Trump, the US president, has denied the historic allegation of sexual assault - Getty Images North America

Donald Trump has said that a woman who claimed to have been raped by him more than 20 years ago is “not my type”.

The US president made the comment as he again denied an alleged sexual assault on the journalist E Jean Carroll.

Carroll said the incident happened in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman a luxury New York department store in the mid-1990s.

She claimed Mr Trump pulled down her tights against her will and raped her. Mr Trump has categorically denied the claim.

Interviewed by The Hill, the US political newspaper, Mr Trump said: “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?”

Asked if she was lying, Mr Trump said “totally lying” and added: “I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is - it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”

E. Jean Carroll, the journalist and columnist, makes the rape allegation in a new book - Credit: AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
E. Jean Carroll, the journalist and columnist, makes the rape allegation in a new book Credit: AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

Speaking to CNN, Carroll reacted to Mr Trump’s comment by saying: “I love that I'm not his type.” She said of the incident: “It was against my will, and it hurt, and it was a fight."

Caroll also generated headlines by saying that “most people think of rape as being sexy” – a remark that came as she said the word rape carried “so many sexual connotations”.

Carroll detailed the claim about Mr Trump and other allegations of assault in her new book, exerts of which were run in New York Magazine last week.

A senior White House official said at the time: “This is a completely false and unrealistic story surfacing 25 years after allegedly taking place and was created simply to make the President look bad.”