What Donald Trump thinks is a progressive plan on maternity leave and childcare is ridiculously inadequate

How can Americans expect progressive proposals from a man who called breastfeeding 'disgusting' and pregnancy an 'inconvenience for business'? The man has had five children and eight grandchildren but never changed a nappy

Donald and Ivanka Trump (Getty)

On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump held up a baby in front of the crowd in Aston, Pennsylvania.

He had just announced his plans on paid leave and childcare, standing beside his eldest daughter Ivanka Trump.

The real estate developer turned apparent champion of working mothers wants to offer six weeks of paid maternity leave for women – that is, if their company does not already offer any form of paid leave.

“I take tremendous pride in [the plan],” Ivanka Trump told Fox & Friends, adding that the proposal was “long overdue … He understands the needs and the challenges of a broken childcare system.”

Trump described this “Family First” plan as his daughter’s “baby”. It is the first time that Ivanka has given media interviews to elaborate on a Trump proposal, and she spoke about the subject at length during the Republican National Convention.

Yet Ivanka and her father don’t exactly have a squeaky clean record when it comes to working mothers. Trump publicly congratulated his eldest daughter for introducing him at a rally in Bethpage, New York, just 10 days after she had given birth to her third child. And his daughter has also come under fire as the company which designs and distributes her clothing line does not offer paid maternity leave.

Digging down into the details, Trump has promised to “re-write the tax code to allow working parents to deduct from their income taxes childcare expenses for up to four children and elderly dependents”, capped at the “average cost of care” in a person’s home state. This deal would not be available for anyone earning more than $250,000 or a couple earning $500,000.

Yet the new proposals don’t touch on paid paternity leave – men have children, too, after all – or paid sick leave.

If the Trump plan falls short, it’s hardly a surprise. The presidential nominee has called pregnancy an “inconvenience” in the workplace in the past and, in 2011, he reportedly told a lawyer who had to leave a deposition to breastfeed her child that she was “disgusting”.

How can Americans expect progressive proposals from a man who has had five children and eight grandchildren but never changed a nappy?

The statistics, as Ivanka herself acknowledged on Fox News, are shocking. The vast majority of US companies – 90 per cent – do not offer paid leave, yet women make up 47 per cent of the work force.

But instead of focusing on the need for paid leave, affordable child care and the damaging effect on the economy and society by not allowing women to return to work, Ivanka rather zeroed in on how the Trump administration would foot the $150bn bill by fighting unemployment insurance fraud. Fraud accounts for just $3bn per year, a tiny amount of all unemployment benefits paid out.

“This is baked into that overall tax reform. It’s budget neutral. It’s baked into the larger picture of the overall economic plan,” she said. “This is definitely accounted for.”

How can we “account for” fundamental gender equality? Allowing American women and men to have children and keep their jobs should be a national priority, not an afterthought.

Not only has Trump failed to provide a comprehensive plan on childcare and paid leave, he has also managed to demonise people who receive unemployment benefits in a country that provides staggeringly little welfare.

In the end, their family plan might be “baked in”, but it’s half-baked at best.

Hillary Clinton has promised 12 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds of people’s salary – paid for by cutting taxes for the wealthy – if she is elected president. Neither is good enough.

But the depressing conclusion is that, given the current situation under a Democratic government, very little is likely to change come 8 November.