Dozens of women reveal shocking encounters with Donald Trump: new report
DOZENS of women who’ve known presidential candidate Donald Trump for decades have opened up about how he treated them.
DOZENS of women who’ve worked for Donald Trump or were part of his social circle have opened up about his history of unsettling behaviour.
Critics have typically branded the Republican presidential candidate a misogynist, particularly following his ongoing feud with actress Rosie O’Donnell whom he disparaged as a “fat pig” and his suggestions that former rival Carly Fiorina’s face made her unelectable.
But now The New York Times has penned a revealing piece on Trump, based on 50 interviews with women associated with him over the past four decades, which presents a more complex and contradictory image.
The Times quoted women who recounted episodes in which he treated women as sexual objects and made comments about their bodies. But some women said he had encouraged them in their careers and promoted them within his businesses, often in positions in which women tended to be excluded.
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When asked about the unflattering incidents described in the article, the 69-year-old billionaire either denied that they took place or disputed the details, the newspaper said.
“A lot of things get made up over the years,” Trump told the Times. “I have always treated women with great respect.”
The thrice-married businessman cultivated an image as a womaniser ever since he was in an all-male military school in the 1960s, where he was named “ladies’ man” in the yearbook, the Times reported.
Barbara Res, who oversaw construction of Trump’s Manhattan business headquarters, said he would sometimes interrupt meetings with comments about women’s figures.
During a job interview for a Los Angeles project, for example, Trump made a random aside about Southern California women. “They take care of their asses,” Res recalled Trump saying.
Years later, when Res says she had gained weight, she said Trump told her: “You like your candy.”
She also said that her boss wanted her to be a ‘Donna Trump.’
“I know you’re a woman in a man’s world. And while men tend to be better than women, a good woman is better than 10 good men,” she recalls him saying.
Even so, Res, who worked for Trump for 12 years before quitting and then came back as a consultant for six more, said she was grateful to Trump for her professional opportunities, though she said he frequently called her “Honey Bunch,” the Times reported.
Barbara Fife, a deputy New York mayor in the 1990s, recalls Trump telling her at her City Hall office that he was in a hurry because he had “a great date tonight with a model for Victoria’s Secret,” she told the Times.
“I saw it as immature, quite honestly,” Fife was quoted as saying.
As a candidate, Trump has made frequent references to his record in business as evidence of how American women would benefit if he is elected. He has often said that no one “cherishes” or “respects” women more than him.
Some of those interviewed praised Trump for giving women positions of power.
“I think there are mischaracterisations about him,” Jill Martin, assistant counsel at the Trump Organisation, told the Times. “For me, he’s made it a situation where I can really excel at my job and still devote the time necessary for my family.”
Trump has long been in the public eye as a celebrity real estate mogul, the star of a popular reality TV show, and until recently the man behind Miss Universe and other beauty pageants.
One Miss USA contestant said that in 1997 Trump, who was married to actress Marla Maples at the time, introduced himself and kissed her and other contestants on the lips.
Alan Lapidus, an architect who designed the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City, told the Times:
“The respect for women was always there. When he was building his empire, the backbone was women.”
Trump has hit back at the article in a furious Twitter tirade, branding it a “lame hit piece” and claiming “everyone is laughing” at the Times.
One former female Trump executive, Louise Sunshine, had glowing words for her ex-boss.
“He was never a boss. He was a leader,” Sunshine told CNN. “He taught me. He mentored me.” Sunshine, who worked for Trump for a decade, said that she considered the experience “the greatest opportunity probably that I would ever have in my lifetime.”
Everyone is laughing at the @nytimes for the lame hit piece they did on me and women.I gave them many names of women I helped-refused to use
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2016
"@tzard000: @realDonaldTrump @nytimes Everyone continues to pile onto Donald, but they can NEVER take away our votes!" Thank you!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2016
"@TakingIt_Back: @nytimes keep shining....the ppl will not let the media dim your light...we no longer believe them! #Trump2016" Thanks.
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2016
Why doesn't the failing @nytimes write the real story on the Clintons and women? The media is TOTALLY dishonest!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2016
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said voters “don’t care” about Trump’s ongoing struggles with female voters.
“I don’t think Donald Trump is being judged based on his personal life,” Priebus told ABC News in the US. “I think people are judging Donald Trump as to whether or not he’s someone that’s going to go to Washington and shake things up. And that’s why he’s doing so well.”
During two later TV appearances, Priebus used the terms “don’t care” and “[failure to] move [the electoral dial]” five times to play down Trump’s challenges.
The news comes as Trump declared Britain would not be at the back of the queue for a trade deal with the US if it voted to leave the European Union.
His comments contradict what US President Barack Obama said last month when he argued for Britain remaining in the EU at a June 23 referendum.
The property tycoon has already said that he personally feels Britain would be better off outside the EU.
Asked if Britain would be at the front of the queue for a trade deal post-Brexit if he became president, Trump said: “I don’t want to say front or anything else.
“I mean, I’m going to treat everybody fairly but it wouldn’t make any difference to me whether they were in the EU or not. You’d certainly not be back of the queue, that I can tell you.”