Fact Check

Did Donald Trump Jr Say 'Women Who Can't Handle Workplace Harassment Shouldn't Work'?

The real estate mogul's son asserted on a radio show in 2013 that women who can't handle workplace harassment should teach kindergarten.

Published Oct. 17, 2016

Claim:
Donald Trump, Jr. said that if women can't handle harassment in the workplace, they should teach kindergarten.

On 13 October 2016, the online news publication BuzzFeed posted a recording of comments made by Donald Trump, Jr. when he was a guest on the now-cancelled SiriusXM radio program The Opie & Anthony Show back in 2013. In the segment, Trump, the son of the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, complained about finding women in what had traditionally been a "guys' place" and said that women who "can't handle" workplace harassment "don't belong in the workforce":

Trump, along with hosts Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, were complaining about the presence of women who ruin their enjoyment of men's environments by complaining about harassment. Trump said:

If you have a guys' place, you have a guys place. I have a hard time letting go of that. Maybe I'm not gonna have a choice.

If you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, then you don’t belong in the workforce. Like, you should go maybe teach kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position.

A spokeswoman for SiriusXM has not responded to our inquiry to verify the recording, but the segment was also posted to YouTube on 1 March 2013. The hosts can be heard in the beginning of the 50-minute broadcast introducing Trump:

The discussion about women and harassment starts at about the 29-minute mark. The recording surfaced as Trump's father was dealing with repercussions to his campaign after multiple women accused him of having groped them, allegations that began after a recording from 2005 was released in which Trump Sr. could be heard making lewd remarks about women and discussing touching them sexually without their consent.

Despite the pair's large following, Anthony Cumia was fired from the The Opie & Anthony Show by SiriusXM in 2014 after he went on a racist Twitter rant following an altercation with an African-American woman.

Sources

Passantino, Jon.   "Trump Jr. Suggested Women Who Can’t Take Harassment 'Don’t Belong in the Workforce.'"     BuzzFeed.   13 October 2016.

Chan, Aleksander.   "SiriusXM Host Claims "Cuntrag" Assaulted Him in Racist Twitter Rant."     Gawker.   2 July 2014.

Mosendz, Polly.   "Opie and Anthony No More: Inside the Nasty Breakup of Radio's Most Notorious Shock Jocks."     Newsweek.   9 April 2014.

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has been working in the news industry since 2006.