Donald Trump employs more women than men at the upper echelons of his real estate empire, and in many cases pays them more, according to the Republican presidential candidate’s attorney.
Appearing on “CNN’s New Day” with Chris Cuomo, Michael Cohen, Trump’s general counsel and an executive vice president at Trump Organization, said that while the billionaire’s companies employ 57 percent men and 43 percent women, “there are more female executives at the Trump Organization than there are male.”
“And women who are similarly situated in positions similar to that of their male counterparts, are actually paid more,” Cohen said.
Trump has come under intense scrutiny for negative comments he’s made recently about women. After the first GOP debate earlier this month, he endorsed a tweet calling Fox News host Megyn Kelly a “bimbo.” He was also accused of telling a New York City attorney that she was “disgusting” for breast-feeding. Trump denied the claim.
Since that fallout, Trump has maintained that he “cherishes” women and that he has long been progressive on the issue of employing women at the top levels of his companies.
“And you can prove it? Sounds too good to be true,” Cuomo asked Cohen of his claims.
“I can prove it,” Cohen answered, adding later that he would allow Cuomo to take a look at the company’s financials as long as he signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“For example, in senior accounting, the male is in the $70,000 range and the female is slightly greater than that,” Cohen said. “In the area of even the legal department where the assistant general counsel makes $25,000 more than her male counterpart.”
Cohen went on to say that he wants other presidential candidates to open up the books of their campaign to compare how they stack up to how Trump runs his organizations.
“I would like to see the other candidates, GOP as well as Democrats as well as Hillary. I’d be curious to see how many males versus females she has in her organization,” Cohen said.
“They’re all talk. Donald Trump is a doer, and he doesn’t do it because the pollsters tell him to do it. He does it because it’s inherent to him. It’s right and he doesn’t care, again, if your name is Mary or Joe. He wants performance. He’s a performance-based individual.”