A contestant in this year’s Miss America contest slammed President Donald Trump during her onstage interview on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
“Donald Trump is the biggest issue our country faces,” Miss West Virginia Madeline Collins told the judges. “Unfortunately, he has caused a lot of division in our country.”
Since contestants responses were limited to 20 seconds, Collins did not go into further detail, the AP wrote.
Miss Massachusetts Gabriela Taveras, who answered a question about how Americans traveling abroad should deal with locals, won the interview portion of the pageant — a new addition that replaced the longstanding swimsuit competition.
The new Miss America will be named on Sunday in a national telecast broadcast live on ABC.
The nearly century-old pageant has been roiled by drama in the last year after CEO Roger Haskell and other top officials resigned last December following the disclosure of derogatory and sexually oriented emails about past contestants.
Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America and TV personality, was named chair of the Miss America Organization board of trustees and initiated a wave of changes — including the elimination of the swimsuit and evening gown competitions and a vow to rule out physical appearance as a criterion for judging a winner.
“We are no longer a pageant,” Gretchen Carlson said on “Good Morning America” in June. “We are a competition.”
Just last month, 19 former Miss America winners requested that Carlson, the board of trustees and president-CEO Regina Hopper step down from their posts. The call to action came after current titleholder Cara Mund released a letter which accused Carlson and Hopper of bullying, manipulation and intimidation.
(Carlson and Hopper have denied the accusations.)