Donald Trump, a haunted bidet, is focusing his ample charms this week on wooing women voters, particularly the white suburban ones who might actually consider voting for him. That means that Trump, a father of five who has bragged about never once changing a diaper, will soon be on the stump talking about childcare and family leave.
As Buzzfeed unearthed back in April, Trump thinks that men who change diapers are “acting like the wife,” according to interviews he gave circa 2005 with both Howard Stern (twice) and Anthony Cumia:
“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 the interview. He repeated the same sentiment to Stern two years later, saying, “Melania is a wonderful mother. She takes care of the baby and I pay all of the costs.”
He also expressed to Cumia that diapers are not his problem: “I don’t do that. 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.”
So what does a man like that think we should do about childcare? While Trump hasn’t unveiled his full plan yet, the Washington Post reports that it involves reforming the tax code to allow working parents to deduct childcare expenses, and six weeks of paid maternity leave. Not parental leave, as is the new standard in this bold century, but maternity. By contrast, Hillary Clinton says she supports 12 weeks paid parental and sick leave.
Trump will announce his full plan Tuesday night in Pennsylvania, flanked by his daughter Ivanka. Trump’s hotels, of course, have generous childcare provisions, but only for his guests, not his employees.