Calling Meghan Markle 'Nasty' and Then Denying It: A Case Study in Gaslighting Captured on Audio
Tier 4Documented2019-06-01 to 2019-06-04
Factual Summary
In June 2019, days before a state visit to the United Kingdom, Donald Trump was informed during an interview with the Sun newspaper that Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, had said during his 2016 campaign that she would move to Canada if Trump were elected. Trump responded: "I didn't know that she was nasty."
The Sun published the interview along with audio of the exchange. The recording was clear and unambiguous. Trump used the word "nasty" in direct reference to Markle's comments about him.
The following day, on June 2, 2019, Trump posted on Twitter: "I never called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold!" He called the reports "fake news" despite the existence of a publicly available audio recording that any listener could verify.
The denial was remarkable because the evidence was not based on anonymous sourcing, secondhand accounts, or interpretive reporting. The audio recording was published by the same outlet that conducted the interview, and Trump's own campaign social media accounts had shared the interview. The Associated Press, PolitiFact, NBC News, CNN, and multiple other outlets reviewed the audio and confirmed that Trump said the word "nasty" in reference to Markle.
After the initial denial was widely debunked, Trump shifted his defense. In an interview with Piers Morgan, he attempted to reframe his remark: "She was nasty about me. And essentially I didn't know she was nasty about me." This reinterpretation attempted to recast the statement as describing Markle's comments rather than Markle herself, a distinction that the audio does not clearly support but that allowed Trump to claim he had been misrepresented.
The incident was part of a broader documented pattern in which Trump used the word "nasty" to describe women who criticized him. He called Hillary Clinton "such a nasty woman" during a 2016 presidential debate. He described questions from female reporters as "nasty." He characterized Kamala Harris as having "a nasty wit." The word appeared repeatedly in contexts involving women who challenged or criticized him, forming a pattern that multiple commentators identified as gendered.
The Markle incident was distinctive not because of the remark itself but because of the denial. Trump denied making a statement that was captured on audio, published, and widely heard. The denial required the public to disbelieve their own ears.
Primary Sources
1. The Sun: interview with Donald Trump, published June 1, 2019 (audio recording included)
2. Trump tweet, June 2, 2019: "I never called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold!"
3. Trump interview with Piers Morgan, ITV, June 2019 (attempted reinterpretation)
Corroborating Sources
1. NBC News: "Trump denies he called Meghan Markle 'nasty' despite audio of remark," June 2019
2. Time: "Trump Denies Meghan Markle 'Nasty' Comment Despite Recording," June 2019
3. CNN: "Trump calls Meghan Markle 'nasty' on tape, then denies it," June 2019
4. PolitiFact: "In Context: Donald Trump's 'nasty' comment about Meghan Markle," June 2019
5. PBS / Associated Press: "AP Fact Check: Trump denies calling Duchess Meghan 'nasty,'" June 2019
6. Slate: "Trump denies he called Meghan Markle 'nasty' even though there's audio proving he did," June 2019
Counterarguments and Context
Trump's defenders argued that his remark was taken out of context and that he was describing Markle's comments about him as nasty rather than calling her nasty as a person. The full quote, "I didn't know that she was nasty," is grammatically ambiguous and can be read either way. Some supporters argued that the media overreacted to an offhand remark in an interview and that Trump's subsequent denial was aimed at correcting what he saw as an unfair interpretation rather than denying the words themselves. However, Trump's initial tweet did not claim his words were misinterpreted. He stated flatly that he "never called Meghan Markle 'nasty,'" a denial of the words themselves, not their interpretation. The audio recording leaves no room for dispute about what was said. Whether Trump was calling Markle nasty or describing her comments as nasty, his categorical denial that he said anything of the kind was false. The incident is significant as a documented case in which Trump denied making a statement that is preserved in audio, requiring his audience to reject verifiable evidence.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 4 because the core evidence comes from a published interview and audio recording by a credible news organization, the Sun, supplemented by fact-checks from multiple independent outlets. The remark itself and the subsequent denial are documented through primary audio evidence. The broader interpretive claim that the incident reflects a gendered pattern in Trump's rhetoric involves journalistic analysis and is not reducible to a single audio clip.