--- title: Donald Trump Called His Working Wife Very Dangerous description: Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump said that "putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing" during a 1994 ABC News interview. canonical: https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T14:06:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:30.513Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Was Against Working Wife, Wanted Dinner On Time og:description: Trump discussed Ivana Trump and Marla Maples in a 1994 ABC News interview. og:url: https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7368e391d264a4/698895f70a4a2215c99c9e9b/trump-working-wife-dangerous-thing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3931 og:image:height: 2211 og:image:alt: trump working wife dangerous thing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Was Against Working Wife, Wanted Dinner On Time twitter:description: Trump discussed Ivana Trump and Marla Maples in a 1994 ABC News interview. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7368e391d264a4/698895f70a4a2215c99c9e9b/trump-working-wife-dangerous-thing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump: 'Putting a Wife to Work is a Very Dangerous Thing' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump, Clinton and the Woman Card [Watch (HLS stream): Trump, Clinton and the Woman Card](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pmBAMZYN.m3u8) (0:35)  _Published 2016-04-27. Donald Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton relies on the_  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jun 2, 2016 2:06 PM UTC  Ivana Trump and Donald Trump attend the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament circa 1988. Ivana Trump and Donald Trump attend the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament circa 1988. Images Press—Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jun 2, 2016 2:06 PM UTC Republican Presidential nominee [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4353352/clinton-leads-trump-may-poll/) said that “putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing” during a [1994 interview](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-1994-putting-wife-work-dangerous-thing/story) with ABC News. ABC republished the interview Wednesday afternoon, in which Trump discussed his marriages to Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. During the conversation, he blamed Ivana’s work in a management position at his Atlantic City casino for his marriage to her failing. “If you’re in business for yourself, I really think it’s a bad idea to put your wife working for you. I think it’s a really bad idea. I think that was the single greatest cause of what happened to my marriage with Ivana,” he said. But his [disapproval of working wives](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html) extended beyond hiring them himself; he said that there were times (dinnertime, in particular) when he found his then-wife Maples’ employment problematic. “I have days where I think \[Maples’ job is\] great. And then I have days where, if I come home — and I don’t want to sound too much like a chauvinist — but when I come home and dinner’s not ready, I go through the roof,” he said. These are not the only [comments Trump has made](http://time.com/4280077/snl-donald-trump-women/) that [demean women](http://time.com/4276762/the-ladies-and-the-trump/), but they do shed light on his stance towards women as far back as 22 years ago. \[[_ABC News_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-1994-putting-wife-work-dangerous-thing/story)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/"},"headline":"Donald Trump: 'Putting a Wife to Work is a Very Dangerous Thing'","datePublished":"2016-06-02T14:06:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:30.513Z","description":"Trump discussed Ivana Trump and Marla Maples in a 1994 ABC News interview","url":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/","keywords":["2016 Election","politics","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7368e391d264a4/698895f70a4a2215c99c9e9b/trump-working-wife-dangerous-thing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7368e391d264a4/698895f70a4a2215c99c9e9b/trump-working-wife-dangerous-thing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump working wife dangerous thing","caption":"trump working wife dangerous thing","creditText":"Images Press—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/","name":"Donald Trump: 'Putting a Wife to Work is a Very Dangerous Thing'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump, Clinton and the Woman Card","description":"Donald Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton relies on the","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pmBAMZYN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-27T14:19:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pmBAMZYN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/","duration":"PT35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4354867/donald-trump-working-wife/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```