Miss USA host quits, calls Trump a ‘clown’

The Chilean actor scheduled to host this year’s Miss USA pageant is quitting over GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s remarks on Hispanic immigrants.

Cristian de la Fuente, who performs on the television series “Devious Maids,” said on Thursday he is abandoning his role in the annual beauty competition.

{mosads}“Mr. Trump, as a Latino, I cannot work in an event associated with your name,” Fuente said in a video posted by TMZ. “The statements you made against Mexicans and immigrants show that you are an ignorant.

“It is unacceptable to launch your presidential candidacy creating a rhetoric of hatred and discrimination in calling Mexicans drug dealers and rapists,” Fuente added.

“It is a shame that such an important institution as Miss USA is in the hands of a clown.” 

Trump countered on Thursday that Fuente was not the host of next month’s Miss USA event.

“We never even signed the guy,” he said of the Chilean actor, according to TMZ.

 “After the Miss USA people saw him they were unimpressed,” Trump added.

Univision Communications Inc. also announced on Thursday morning that it would not telecast the Miss USA pageant scheduled for July 12.

It terminated its relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, a group that produces the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants that Trump partly-owns.

“At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country,” Univision said on its website.

Trump’s presidential campaign countered on Thursday that the network was caving to pressure from Mexico by blacklisting the pageants.

“The Mexican government and others are putting tremendous pressure on Univision to break their signed and fully-effective contract with the Miss Universe Organization,” it said.

“[This is] because Mr. Trump has been exposing the public, and the world, to the significant damage that is being done at the southern border, and the terrible and costly trade deals that the United States is incompetently making with Mexico,” it added. “These deals are great for Mexico and horrible for the United States.”

Trump also said he plans on suing Univision for “hundreds of millions of dollars” for breaching its contract with his Miss Universe Organization.

Trump formally launched his 2016 White House bid on June 16 from New York City’s Trump Tower.

He said during his announcement speech “the U.S. has become the dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.”

“They’re sending people who have a lot of problems,” Trump said of illegal immigration. “They bring in drugs, they bring in crime, they’re rapists. I assume some are good people.”

 — This story was updated at 2:34 p.m.