Trump: Miss California’s Racy Photos, Stance on Gay Marriage Makes Miss USA Relevant

Despite the rumors, blogs, feuds and fiery debates spurred by Miss California’s pageant platform against gay marriage, Donald Trump said he thinks the controversy surrounding Carrie Prejean is a “good thing.”

“To a large extent, because of the great beauty of Carrie, it stirred a national debate on an issue that’s been out there for a long time,” Trump said on “Good Morning America” today.

But it was a set of topless photos, not Prejean’s marriage views, that threatened her crown a month after she was named runner-up in the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant. During a news conference Tuesday, Trump announced that Prejean would not be stripped of her Miss California title or crown.

“If a photographer wants to release these photos just to make me look bad, then so be it,” she said.

Prejean said she didn’t consider the photos to be “semi-nude,” and added that while she has been pressured to do so, she has never posed nude or semi-nude and always requests that her breasts be covered and she’s shot in full bottoms.

The racy photos, however “lovely” Trump thinks they are, have drawn criticism from the many of the same conservative groups that initially backed Prejean for her gay marriage stance.

Trump said that admitting contestants who have done some modeling into the pageant and asking them tough questions has kept Miss USA relevant while the competing Miss America pageant has been taken off network television.

“Miss America’s gone-zo, and we’re doing phenomenally,” he said.