Trump’s Advice to Friends in 1994? “Be Rougher With Your Wives”

An interview from 1994 has surfaced, which has Trump revealing his attitude towards women he marries.

Khemta H Jose
World
Updated:
File photo of US Presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Photo: Reuters)
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File photo of US Presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Photo: Reuters)
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It’s like a Pandora’s box of sleaze has been opened over in the US, and Trump is the fountainhead.

The newest development in this presidential election’s episode of “What the Hell Has Trump Done Now” is a video of him in conversation with an ABC reporter in 1994, saying, well, exactly the kind of predatory and abusive thing you've now come to expect him to say about women, except this time specifically about his wives – the women he chooses to share his life with.

Let’s sample a few choice quotes from this buffet of bigotry:

On How to Treat One’s Wife

Psychologists will tell you that some women want to be treated with respect. [...] I tell friends who treat their wives magnificently, get treated like crap in return, ‘Be rougher and you’ll see a different relationship.’

That Trump needs psychologists to tell him that women (much like other human beings) appreciate being treated with respect is telling. That he goes on to repeat this with scepticism (“some” women?) is vomit-inducing.

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On His Wife Working

On being asked about whether he wants his wife to work or not, after talking about negotiating his prenuptial agreement with Marla Maples and getting her to agree to a “deal” of a mere $1 million in the event of a divorce:

I have days where I think it’s awesome that she’s working, and other days – now I don’t want to sound too much like a chauvinist – when I get home and dinner’s not ready, I just go through the roof.

So Trump expects his wife to birth his children, be his personal chef, and generally wait on him hand and foot, but doesn’t think that’s worth an equitable division of assets.

He also thinks “going through the roof” is acceptable behaviour, like a manchild who hasn’t been breastfed in time.

On Prenups

He doesn’t believe a wife should get to walk away from a divorce “like the Queen of Sheba.”

Seems rather like a woman who could tolerate being married to Trump for any length of time deserves substantial compensation, more than a taxpayer-looting billionaire does.

How He Sees His Wives

I love creating stars. [...] Unfortunately, after they’re a star, the fun is over for me. It’s like a creation process, it’s almost like creating a building. It’s pretty sad.

The women he marries are to him like the inanimate objects he creates and then promptly loses interest in. It explains his subsequent public comments about women’s physical appearance – he sees them as objects to be appraised on their aesthetic appeal.

But a rare moment of self-awareness emerges, where he, for a shining moment, seems to realise how sad a human being he is.

(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)

Published: 17 Oct 2016,09:09 PM IST

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