--- title: Donald Trump Says He Can ‘Do Anything’ to Women on Hot Mic description: Donald Trump on Friday played down but also quickly apologized for 2005 remarks that surfaced in newly-published audio canonical: https://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-07T20:45:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-17T15:48:17.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump in Leaked Audio: I Can ‘Do Anything’ to Women og:description: "When you’re a star they let you do it" og:url: https://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd72f461259864f24/6988a933524fc03080df9c4c/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pueblo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump in Leaked Audio: I Can ‘Do Anything’ to Women twitter:description: "When you’re a star they let you do it" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd72f461259864f24/6988a933524fc03080df9c4c/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump in Leaked Audio: I Can ‘Do Anything’ to Women > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Updated: Jan 17, 2024 3:48 PM UTCPublished: Oct 7, 2016 8:45 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pueblo, Col., on Oct. 3, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pueblo, Col., on Oct. 3, 2016.Mike Segar—Reuters  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Updated: Jan 17, 2024 3:48 PM UTCPublished: Oct 7, 2016 8:45 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4522768/donald-trump-undocumented-immigrants-let-in-so-they-can-go-and-vote/) on Friday responded to [newly-published audio](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4%5Fstory.html?tid=sm%5Ftw) of 2005 remarks, in which he was heard lewdly bragging about his ability to “do anything” to women. In the audio, published by [the Washington _Post_,](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4%5Fstory.html?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrumptape-404pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) Trump tells TV host Billy Bush how he unsuccessfully tried to have sex with a married woman and how “you can do anything” to women “when you’re a star.” The conversation caught on a hot mic took place shortly after Trump married his third wife, Melania, according to the newspaper. “I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump can be heard saying. “I did try and f–k her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’” “I moved on her like a b—h, but I couldn’t get there,” he adds. “And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.” The real estate mogul also told Bush that he’s “automatically attracted to beautiful” women, like a “magnet,” and that sometimes he goes straight for a kiss. “I just start kissing them,” he says. “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.” “Grab them by the p—y,” Trump adds. “You can do anything.” Trump quickly responded Friday with a [statement](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/statement-from-donald-j.-trump). “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago,” he said. “Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course—not even close.” Hillary Clinton criticized Trump’s comments, calling them “horrific.” “We cannot allow this man to become president,” she [tweeted](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/784497331647422464). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/"},"headline":"Donald Trump in Leaked Audio: I Can ‘Do Anything’ to Women","datePublished":"2016-10-07T20:45:40.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-17T15:48:17.000Z","description":"\"When you’re a star they let you do it\"","url":"https://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd72f461259864f24/6988a933524fc03080df9c4c/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd72f461259864f24/6988a933524fc03080df9c4c/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pueblo","caption":"U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pueblo, Colorado, U.S., October 3, 2016. 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