--- 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: 2026-02-22T22:20:48.776Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump: 'Putting a Wife to Work is a Very Dangerous Thing' ## 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":"2026-02-22T22:20:48.776Z","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 topic","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"}}] ```