Meet the Los Angeles Woman Who Became Hillary Clinton's Trump Card

LOS ANGELES, CA — She was the ace up Hillary Clinton’s sleeve, and she’s quickly become the thorn in Donald Trump’s side: Meet the Los Angeles woman who’s suddenly taken center stage in the presidential election.

She’s Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe from Venezuela, whom Trump infamously mocked for gaining weight during her reign in 1996. In the closing moments of the debate, Clinton visibly unnerved Trump, tying his treatment of Machado to his attitudes about women and Hispanics.

"And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest," Clinton said. "And he called this woman 'Miss Piggy.' Then he called her 'Miss Housekeeping,' because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name."

“Where did you find this? Where did you find this? Where did you find this,” Trump interrupted.

Machado, who went on to become a U.S. citizen and Hollywood resident, dominated headlines in the aftermath of the debate. Trump spent his morning defending his treatment of Machado, telling "Fox and Friends,” “That person was a Miss Universe person, and she was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst.”

Her weight was her problem, he explained.

“She was the winner," he said, "and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”

Clinton appears confident that Trump’s efforts to defend his treatment of Machado will turn off voters. She tweeted Trump's comments on "Fox and Friends" along with an ad questioning how someone who talks about women the way he does would affect little girls across America as president.

In 1997, Trump, weighed the option of firing Machado but ultimately decided to "help" her shed the pounds, he said today. At the time, he scheduled a workout for her and invited the media watch it.

“She weighed 117 pounds or 118 pounds, and she went up to 160 or 170,” he told reporters at the time. “So this is somebody who likes to eat.”

However, Trump’s publicity stunt is coming back to bite him in an ad released today by the Clinton campaign. In the ad, Machado, now an actress, activist and ardent Clinton supporter, talks about Trump’s treatment of her as Miss Universe.

“He’d yell at me all the time. He’d tell me, 'You look ugly,' or 'You look fat,' she said in Spanish. “Sometimes he’d play with me and say, 'Hello Miss Piggy, Hello Miss Housekeeping.'”

The experience was humiliating, and it triggered years of eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia, she said. She further indicts Trump for the way he treats people.

“This is a man who doesn’t realize the damage he causes. He bears many grudges and harbors a deep racism, and he is convinced that there are lesser human beings than him,” Machado said. “But now I am strong. I am an American citizen, and I’m going to vote. That’s why I dare speak about all this. I think Donald Trump definitely lacks the ability, experience, preparation and human qualities, to be president of the United States.”

Photo: Youtube screengrab