Alicia Machado reacts as she is crowned Miss Universe by the 1995 winner, Chelsi Smith, at the Miss Universe competition in Las Vegas in 1996. (Eric Draper/Associated Press) 
 
 Hillary Clinton might want to dig out of the vault her “3 a.m. phone call” ad from 2008, wherein she argued that the then-freshman senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, wasn’t prepared to deal with international emergencies: 
 
 This ad from Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign implied that Barack Obama wasn't equipped to deal with international emergencies. (Hillary Clinton 2008) 
 
 The question now may be: Do you want Donald Trump up at 3 a.m. tweeting crazy stuff? That’s precisely what he did (starting with a 3:20 a.m. tweet): 
 
 “Anytime you see a story about me or my campaign saying ‘sources said,’ DO NOT believe it. There are no sources, they are just made up lies!” “Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an ‘angel’ without checking her past, which is terrible!” “Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.” “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?” 
 
 [Greg Sargent: Trump’s ‘disgusting’ tweet about Alicia Machado got one thing right. It isn’t what he thinks.] 
 
 His invitation for Americans to go look at a “sex tape” is beyond bizarre and may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of his campaign. This is plainly a man unhinged, unable to accept his defeat in the debate and — tweeting in the middle of the night — lacking any impulse control. 
 
 It’s impossible to imagine that this won’t dominate the news for at least a few days and come up in the next debate. The Clinton camp’s best course here is to be very, very quiet as Trump self-destructs. 
 
 This archive video from 1997 shows Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump with his now outspoken critic, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. (Reuters) 
 
 For the evangelical “leaders” who backed him, this is the latest humiliation, confirming that they lack a moral center or any discernible standards. They now support a man urging fellow Americans to go watch a sex tape. 
 
 For Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, his self-made predicament gets worse. Is he really going to tell us this man is fit to be president? 
 
 This was, of course, precisely what #NeverTrump Republicans warned would happen: An emotionally unstable, raging narcissist would suffer some type of public breakdown, confirming the gross malfeasance of the Republican National Committee and the foolishness of his backers. 
 
 Just about every possible option is now on the table. Trump could decide not to attend the next debate. That could start a GOP effort to get him to step down. Conservative independent Evan McMullin could present himself as a viable alternative to save the party. Or Trump could take the GOP down the tubes in an election that was eminently winnable — until the party nominated a lunatic. ||||| Politically expedient changes of heart are to be expected for presidential candidates. 
 
 They’re just not usually about porn. 
 
 Barack Obama was for gay marriage and then against it (and then for it). Hillary Clinton was against gay marriage and then for it, and for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and then against it. Mitt Romney was pro-choice as governor of Massachusetts, and pro-life as a presidential candidate. 
 
 But these are normal politicians, changing their mind about political topics. 
 
 Major party nominees aren’t usually former reality television stars whose sensibilities make Ron Jeremy look like Donny Osmond. 
 
 In addition to changing his mind on nearly every domestic and foreign policy during the fifteen months he’s been running for president, it seems Donald Trump has arrived at a new position on an unlikely topic for a Republican nominee: sex tapes. 
 
 At 5:14 AM, as the rest of the country peacefully slumbered unaware, Trump’s little fingers got to work lobbing a series of criticisms of Alicia Machado on Twitter. 
 
 “Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an “angel” without checking her past, which is terrible!” Trump said. 
 
 “Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.” 
 
 He added, “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?” 
 
 Machado is the former Miss Universe whom Trump publicly tormented for gaining weight back in 1996, calling her “Miss Piggy” among other names. Since the first presidential debate Monday night, when Clinton used the incident to paint a picture of Trump as a boorish misogynist, Machado has been on a media blitz on behalf of the Democratic nominee, and thus has become an enemy of Trump’s defenders in right-wing media. 
 
 Machado’s critics have noted that she is—you could generously say—an imperfect surrogate: a suspected murder accomplice and former reality TV participant who once posed for Playboy (although Trump, remember, is a former reality TV star who has posed for Playboy. And while not involved in any murders, he is close to Don King, the boxing promoter who stomped a man to death—but I digress). 
 
 Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking “Subscribe,” you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason. 
 
 There is no proof, however, that Machado performed in porn, despite the claims of Infowars, the conspiracy website, and others, like the more mainstream Daily Caller. 
 
 But Trump’s early morning Twitter tirade represents a reversal of sorts on the topic of sex tapes, which he previously enthusiastically supported. 
 
 As The Daily Beast reported in August of 2015, Trump told Howard Stern in 2003 that he had watched Paris Hilton’s sex tape with his then-girlfriend, Melania Knauss. 
 
 “It was just on the internet,” Trump said. “Melania showed it to me.” 
 
 “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s twelve, her parents are friends of mine,” he added. “And the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ At twelve, I wasn’t interested…but she was beautiful.” 
 
 In 2004, he said the tape didn’t bother him and suggested Hilton host the Miss USA pageant. 
 
 In 2005, Trump told Vanity Fair that Hilton’s sex tape, “only made her hotter.” 
 
 And when it became public that Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean (who was later dethroned) had a sex tape in 2009, Trump encouraged her to release it for public consumption. 
 
 “She’s trying to act like she’s a nun,” Trump told the tabloid show Extra, “So maybe she should release the sex tape and people would see whether or not she is a nun.” On CNN, he added, “She openly admits there is a sex tape. Maybe she should reveal the sex tape to see whether or not it’s horrendous or whatever.” 
 
 A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond when asked when the Republican nominee began to think sex tapes were disgusting. 
 
 In August, however, Trump signed “The Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge” by Enough.org, in which he promised that, if elected, he would, “give serious consideration to appointing a Presidential Commission to examine the harmful public health impact of Internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture and the prevention of the sexual exploitation of children in the digital age.” 
 
 This from the man who looked at a twelve year old Paris Hilton and thought, that’s hot. ||||| Donald Trump doubled down on criticism of a former Miss Universe he allegedly called ‘Miss Piggy’ on Tuesday morning, saying Venezuelan beauty queen Alicia Machado was “the absolute worst” contestant they had ever had. 
 
 “I know that person, she was a Miss Universe person and she was the worst we ever had — the worst, the absolute worst,” the Republican presidential hopeful said on a call in to the Fox & Friends studio. “She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem,” he added. 
 
 In last night’s presidential debate, Hillary Clinton accused Trump of treating women poorly, including claims that he had insulted Machado, 39, by calling her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ in reference to her Venezuelan heritage and ‘Miss Piggy’ when she gained 42lbs in 1997, the year after she was crowned Miss Universe aged 19. Trump did not respond to these specific allegations. 
 
 Trump, who was a partner in the company who owned the pageant at the time, also reportedly called Machado an “eating machine” and she claims he invited reporters to watch her exercise at a New York gym. In 1997, he told People that a beauty pageant winner has “an obligation to stay in a perfect physical state.” 
 
 Clinton reprimanded Trump over his alleged name-calling. “Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a U.S. citizen – and you can bet she’s going to vote this November,” she told him. He asked for more details about the allegation while she was speaking, but did not immediately deny it. 
 
 A few hours after the debate, Clinton’s campaign released a new video in which Machado describes the treatment she says she suffered at the hands of Trump and added he threatened to take her crown away after she gained weight. “It had turned into a circus, the joke of ‘The Fat Miss Universe’,” she says. “A joke which caused me a lot of pain.” 
 
 “Long after, I was sick with eating disorders. I wouldn’t eat, and would still see myself as fat, because a powerful man had said so.” 
 
 Machado, who now lives in Hollywood, has been supporting Clinton on her campaign trail since she became an American citizen in August – just in time to vote in the U.S. elections. “I’m a mom, I’m a student, I’m an entrepreneur. I know @HillaryClinton is our candidate,” she wrote on Instagram. 
 
 Inside Edition reports that Machado is about to sign with a major publisher to sell her memoir.
– Donald Trump is doubling down in his criticism of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, calling her "disgusting," accusing her of making a sex tape, and saying that Hillary Clinton made a big mistake in referencing her during Monday's debate. As for the sex tape, myth-busting site Snopes looked into it, along with rumors that she was an adult-film actress, and finds the allegations to be "mostly untrue." The sex-tape story stems from 2005, when Machado reportedly was filmed having sex with another member of a Spanish reality-TV show. But the grainy night-vision footage of a "covered" couple in bed is not explicit and, given that it stems from a reality show, may have been a staged stunt anyway, says Snopes. In a series of tweets Friday morning, Trump unleashed the following: First: "Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an 'angel' without checking her past, which is terrible!" Second: "Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con." Third: "Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?" Also surfacing are reports that Machado was implicated in a murder as a getaway driver about 20 years ago and that she threatened a judge, but she wasn't charged over either, reports CBS News. Asked about the allegations on CNN, she said, "I'm no saint girl."