--- title: Access Hollywood Confirms Leaked Donald Trump Tape Was Real description: Access Hollywood set the record straight Monday about recent reports that President Trump now claims the infamous leaked tape was fabricated canonical: https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-28T13:14:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:55.503Z article:section: Politics og:title: Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake og:description: “Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real" og:url: https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt225d215fe1f16cc9/6988e7088fd2ee4ade359c3e/access-hollywood-trump-tape.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "Celebrity Apprentice" Red Carpet Event og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake twitter:description: “Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt225d215fe1f16cc9/6988e7088fd2ee4ade359c3e/access-hollywood-trump-tape.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Access Hollywood_ Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake > 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. ## Video: Donald Trump's Facebook Statement [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump's Facebook Statement](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MLqKZLTC.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2016-10-08. The bombshell dropped on the Washington Post’s website : a video of Donald Trump, in 2005, using extremely vulgar language to describe women, detailing his attempt to bed a married woman and bragging that he can grope women because he is a celebrity._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 28, 2017 1:14 PM UTC  Donald Trump (R) is interviewed by Billy Bush of Access Hollywood at "Celebrity Apprentice" Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on Jan. 20, 2015 in New York City. Donald Trump (R) is interviewed by Billy Bush of Access Hollywood at "Celebrity Apprentice" Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on Jan. 20, 2015 in New York City.Rob Kim/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 28, 2017 1:14 PM UTC _Access Hollywood_ set the record straight on Monday about recent reports that President Trump now claims the [leaked tape](http://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/) in which he bragged about groping women was fabricated. Trump suggested to a Senator and an adviser this year that [the _Access Hollywood_ tape](http://time.com/4523755/donald-trump-leaked-tape-impact/) — in which he said he “can do anything” to women because he’s a celebrity — was not authentic, the [New York _Times_ reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/politics/trump-roy-moore-mcconnell-alabama-senate.html?%5Fr=0) on Saturday. Shortly after it was leaked in October 2016, Trump acknowledged his comments and apologized for them. “We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape,” _Access Hollywood_ host [Natalie Morales](http://time.com/4320554/natalie-morales-today-show-access-hollywood-co-host/) said during the show on Monday. “Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real. Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker-room talk.’ He said every one of those words.” Asked during Monday’s press briefing whether Trump believes the tape is real, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders avoided a direct answer. “Look, the President addressed this. This was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the President and the fact that he’s sitting here in the Oval Office today,” she said. Asked again whether Trump’s apology for the tape indicated that he believes it’s authentic, she said: “No. Like I just said, the President hasn’t changed his position. I think if anything that the President questions, it’s the media’s reporting on that accuracy.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/"},"headline":"Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake","datePublished":"2017-11-28T13:14:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:55.503Z","description":"“Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real\"","url":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt225d215fe1f16cc9/6988e7088fd2ee4ade359c3e/access-hollywood-trump-tape.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt225d215fe1f16cc9/6988e7088fd2ee4ade359c3e/access-hollywood-trump-tape.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Celebrity Apprentice\" Red Carpet Event","caption":"\"Celebrity Apprentice\" Red Carpet Event","creditText":"Rob Kim/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/","name":"Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump's Facebook Statement","description":"The bombshell dropped on the Washington Post’s website : a video of Donald Trump, in 2005, using extremely vulgar language to describe women, detailing his attempt to bed a married woman and bragging that he can grope women because he is a celebrity.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/MLqKZLTC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-08T04:46:08.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MLqKZLTC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/","duration":"PT1M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5038934/donald-trump-access-hollywood-authentic-tape/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```