Washington: Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has a mixed history with women, with crude remarks mixed with efforts to foster the career of female employees, The New York Times reported.
The thrice-married Trump, 69, cultivated an image as a womaniser ever since he was in an all-male military school in the 1960s, where he was dubbed a “ladies’ man,” the Times reported on Saturday.
Critics portray Trump as a misogynist, seeing proof in incidents such as his feud with actress Rosie O’Donnell — whom he disparaged as a “fat pig” — and his suggestions that former presidential rival Carly Fiorina’s face made her unelectable.
But the Times, in more than 50 interviews with women associated with Trump over the past four decades, shows a more complex and contradictory image.
There were unwelcome advances on women and plenty of crude commentary on female bodies, the Times reported.
But Trump also nurtured the careers of several women within his business organisation.
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.
However, Trump also hired Barbara Res as his head of construction in the 1980s, at a time when there were few women in such positions at major construction firms.
She 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.
Years later, Trump told her “You like your candy,” Res told the Times. “It was him reminding me that I was overweight.”
Res worked with Trump for 18 years.
“The respect for women was always there,” Alan Lapidus, an architect who designed the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City, told the Times. “When he was building his empire, the backbone was women.”
Trump told the Times that he was proud of his record of hiring and promoting women.
“I have always treated women with great respect. And women will tell you that.”
He brushed off the unflattering allegations. “A lot of things get made up over the years,” he told the newspaper.
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.” The story comes less than two weeks after the last of Trump’s Republican rivals dropped out, all but assuring him the party’s presidential nomination this summer.
Throughout his improbable campaign, Trump has managed to deflect criticism about his attitude to women, fuelled by verbal insults he lobbed at Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and former Republican candidate Carly Fiorina.
