A former beauty queen who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her claims the president threatened her afterward, warning that “bad things can happen if you speak out,” she has revealed in an exclusive interview with PunchUp.
Beatrice Keul, 55, a former Miss Switzerland and Miss Europe contestant, told the Daily Beast’s new Substack publication that she has faced repeated threats to her safety since going public over the alleged 1993 assault, but refuses to back down. “I stood up to the American president to save lives,” she told PunchUp. “This is my truth, and I will not be silenced.”
Keul first came forward in October 2024, alleging that Trump—then 47, while she was a 23-year-old banking executive and part-time model—lured her to his Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant in New York. She says an aide then asked her to join the property developer for a “private meeting” before he allegedly groped her in a suite at the Plaza Hotel.
Her allegations prompted author and Daily Beast Inside Trump’s Head podcast co-host Michael Wolff to release some of the 100 hours of interviews he conducted with Jeffrey Epstein, including a recording of Epstein describing himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”
Last December, multiple women came forward with similar accounts in a New York Times investigation, in which Keul further detailed the alleged assault.
Keul is one of at least 28 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including writer E. Jean Carroll, whose sexual abuse claims a New York jury found credible. The Supreme Court rejected his push to throw out that jury’s finding on Monday. Trump, 80, has denied all allegations, calling them “unequivocally false” and insisting he has “never met” some of his accusers. He has not taken legal action.
(White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, then serving as press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, also said in October 2024 that Keul’s claims were “fake allegations.”)
Speaking to PunchUp in the first of a three-part interview spread across this week as part of the outlet’s official launch, Keul says the encounter ended only after she talked Trump down.
Keul says Trump first “jumped” on her, kissed her, and tried to lift her dress. “He was grabbing and touching my body everywhere he could,” she claims, adding, “It was violent, it was quick, it was intense. I was screaming for help, and nobody came. It was bad.”
She says he then told her to keep quiet—“otherwise, bad things can happen”—a remark she took as a threat.
Keul also alleges Epstein made moves on her that day, introducing himself as “Don’s best friend” and telling her she was supposed to be his “prey.” As she told Swiss outlet NZZ, “First, the sexual assault by Donald Trump, and then Jeffrey Epstein wouldn’t let go of me—it was like a horror show.”
Since speaking out, Keul told PunchUp, she has faced repeated attempts to silence her. One AI-generated audio message, received around the time of the death of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in April 2025, said: “We know where you are, and we will get you.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the president in a statement to the Daily Beast and PunchUp. “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” she said, adding that Trump “has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”
Keul, who has finished a book now “with the lawyers” ahead of publication, believes more survivors will come forward this year. “The dam is about to burst,” she told PunchUp, where the first installment of her three-part interview can be read in full.
The Daily Beast has also contacted representatives for Donald Trump for comment.
Subscribe to PunchUp for part two of Tom Latchem’s exclusive interview with Keul. And to start reading, claim a two-week free trial.
