Hillary Clinton pushed a button that has sent Donald Trump into orbit. This morning he went off on a two-hour Twitter rant that Clinton was “duped and used” by former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, urging his followers to “check out [her] sex tape and past.”

Machado is a native of Venezuela and was pushed into the political spotlight at Monday night’s presidential debate, when Clinton mentioned her during a riff on Trump’s long history of derogatory remarks towards women. Clinton noted that Trump has referred to Machado as “Miss Piggy,” a reference to her supposed weight gain as Miss Universe, and “Miss Housekeeping,” because of her Hispanic heritage.

Clinton punctuated the line of attack by adding,

“Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”

Trump was stunned and his feud with Machado has escalated over the past several days as the Clinton campaign has begun deploying her as a surrogate and putting her on calls with the campaign press. Machado, meanwhile, has gone on a publicity blitz, appearing on a raft of TV shows and excoriating Trump at every turn.

And Trump has, once again, taken the bait.

Politico first reported that his latest online tirade began at 3:20 a.m. today, when he tweeted,

“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!”

Two hours later, he began a series of tweets about Machado, with whom he’s sparred in recent days.

“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.”

The billionaire boob wrapped up his early-morning attack by asking his followers,

“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?”

The day after Monday’s debate, Trump admitted to Fox News that Clinton’s bringing his history with Machado into the race had gotten under his skin, calling her “the worst we ever had” as a Miss Universe winner because “she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”

In the days since, Trump and his surrogates have sought to further discredit her by bringing up a nearly two-decade old attempted murder investigation in which Machado was never charged and accusing her of starring in pornographic films.

While Machado has starred in risqué reality TV programs and posed nude for the Mexican version of Playboy magazine, the Daily Beast and other outlets that investigated the claim found no evidence that she has starred in any pornographic films and that the clips posted online actually feature another woman.

Our old friend Scott Wooledge got in a good zinger on Twitter (below) asking Trump if was referring to a lesbian porn shoot his wife, Melania stars in with another woman?

Behold the nonsense. Let’s hope the Clinton campaign has several more of these embarrassing moments waiting in the wings.

(via Politico)