Donald Trump slut shames Alicia Machado in early morning Twitter tirade

Donald Trump on Friday embarked on an early morning Twitter rant against former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, calling her "disgusting" and encouraging Americans to "check out" a sex tape Machado allegedly appeared in.

"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?" Trump tweeted at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, after two other tweets targeting Machado.

Trump's Twitter tirade comes four days after Hillary Clinton pointed to Machado as evidence of Trump's misogyny during the first general election debate, reminding voters of how Trump fat-shamed Machado by calling her "Miss Piggy" after she gained weight following her Miss Universe win in 1996.

Since then, Trump has kept the story going by defending his behavior toward Machado in the 1990s by saying Machado was the "worst" because she had "gained a massive amount of weight."

Trump's treatment of Machado threatens to further hurt his standing among women voters, who back Clinton by a wide margin, according to public polling.

Even worse, Trump's tweetstorm against Machado could also further cement voters' view that Trump does not have the temperament to serve as president.

During Monday's debate, the audience — which was instructed to stay silent — burst out in laughter when Trump claimed to have a better temperament than Clinton.

And in an NBC News/Surveymonkey poll taken after the debate, 63% of voters said Trump does not have the temperament to serve as president.

Cable news hosts were shocked at Trump's Twitter rant.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, the panel read Trump's tweets verbatim and were dumbfounded.

Later on in the show, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd could not believe what he was seeing.

"Why is he encouraging people to watch pornography?" he said incredulously.