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Donald Trump Says Men Who Take Care of Their Kids Are Acting ‘Like the Wife’

Kristen Bellstrom
By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
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Kristen Bellstrom
By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
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April 24, 2016, 2:04 PM ET

Donald Trump is already in hot water with women, 73% of whom disapprove of the GOP frontrunner according to recent polls. Now, he’s poised to infuriate another massive voting block: parents.

While the Republican candidate has increasingly been portraying himself as a family man, often joined on the stump by his three eldest children—Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric—his comments in series of past interviews reveal retrograde ideas about fatherhood that are out of step with today’s America, where both parents work in nearly half of all two-parent households.

Buzzfeed took a look back at a series of interviews from 2003 to 2007, in which Trump held forth on fatherhood, taking care of the kids, and parental gender roles. The real estate mogul, who is not exactly known for being consistent, stayed on message about parenthood throughout: Dads supply the money, moms do everything else.

Here’s an overview of what these interviews teach us about the GOP frontrunner as a dad and husband.

Trump doesn’t change diapers…

“No, I don’t do that,” Trump said on the Opie and Anthony show in 2005. “There’s a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife and you know there’s a lot of husbands that listen to that… I’m really like a great father but certain things you do and certain things you don’t. It’s just not for me.”

…or really do anything hands-on to care for his kids.

“I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park,” Trump said in a 2005 interview with Howard Stern. “Marla used to say, ‘I can’t believe you’re not walking Tiffany down the street,’ you know in a carriage. Right, I’m gonna be walking down Fifth Avenue with a baby in a carriage. It just didn’t work.”

It’s not just babies that Trump avoids.

In a 2007 interview, Trump told Stern about his relationship with Tiffany, his daughter with Marla Marples. Trump said that Tiffany visits him, “You know for about an hour, ‘Hi dad,’ Hi Tiff, I love you Tiff.’ She’s a great kid,” says Trump, who tells Stern that Tiffany’s a smart girl—something he knows because he “glances” at her report cards.

Perhaps he’s trying to patch things up with Tiffany after his comments on a previous Howard Stern Show?

Speaking to Stern in 2003, Trump said he married Maples because she got pregnant with Tiffany. “At the time it was like, ‘Excuse me, what happened?” Trump said. “And then I said, ‘Well, what are we going to do about this?'”

Listen to the clips from each interview on Buzzfeed.

About the Author
Kristen Bellstrom
By Kristen Bellstrom
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