(CNN)A former Miss USA contestant says Donald Trump personally inspected each woman prior to the contest to the point where it was "the dirtiest I felt in my entire life."
Samantha Holvey, the 2006 Miss North Carolina, told CNN that during an event in New York City in the month before the pageant, Trump personally inspected each of the contestants.
"He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people," Holvey said. "You know when a gross guy at the bar is checking you out? It's that feeling."
As a 20-year-old attending a private Southern Baptist college, she said she was not prepared for what she experienced before and during the pageant. She recalled private parties where the contestants mingled with "old, rich drunk guys ogling all over us."
At the time, she said, she told her mother what was going on. The final straw, she said, was when Trump and his wife, Melania, showed up backstage.
"He was literally walking around just looking at the girls and then he and Melania walked in," Holvey said.
They both then proceeded to a doorway that led into the dressing room where other contestants were getting ready, she said.
"I thought it was entirely inappropriate," Holvey said. "I told my mom about it. I was disgusted by the entire thing. I had no desire to win when I understood what it was all about."
