Claim:
In 1994 or 1995, Donald Trump said of his 13 year old daughter Ivanka“Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?”
Rating:
On April 10, 2024, one user in job a meme showing a photo of Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka. The meme read: “In 1993, Trump asked, ‘Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?’ At that time, Ivanka was 13 years old.”
Remember when Biden went on national television saying that he and Ashley Biden had joint sex?
Oh, wait. It was Trump.
Trump asked if it was wrong to be more sexually attracted to his 13-year-old daughter than to his wife.
If you agree that it is false, #VoteForBiden. pic.twitter.com/FY59xJyYpt
– Shelly R Kirchoff (@ShellyRKirchoff) April 10, 2024
We first traced this quote to 2020 book “Trump: the chosen one: the road to perdition.” The book cited as a source an article published by Cosmopolitan on November 22, 2016. The Cosmopolitan article cited original reporting from BuzzFeed News.
According to the BuzzFeed News article – also published on November 22, 2016 – the alleged Trump quote only appeared in an early, unpublished version of a Washington Post opinion column. The first version was sent to media outlets that would run the story, BuzzFeed News said. The BuzzFeed News report does not indicate that its journalists personally reviewed the unpublished draft. Instead, he cited an anonymous source as proof.
Snopes contacted editors at the Post, the author of the BuzzFeed News article and Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign to inquire about the truth behind the story. This story will be updated if we receive more details.
The origins of the quote
Opinion column of the Post was titled “Our Next President, the Godfather” and was written by Richard Cohen, who work for the Post from 1968 to 2019. Hours after media outlets reportedly received the first version, the column was published without the quote on the night of November 21, 2016.
The BuzzFeed News article, citing its anonymous source, said that an early version of Cohen’s Post column included the following paragraph:
Jared Kushner, our Tom Hagen, who married Trump’s beautiful daughter Ivanka — “Can I ask you something?” Trump asked someone I know, about his then 13-year-old child, “Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than to your wife?” – has recently lost some of that Boy Scout aura. It turns out that Kushner’s admission to Harvard was preceded by his father’s $2.5 million commitment.
The following text appears in the published version of the article on the Post’s website, minus the quote that would have been included in an earlier version:
Jared Kushner, our Tom Hagen, who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka, recently lost some of that boy scout aura. It turns out that Kushner’s admission to Harvard was preceded by his father’s $2.5 million commitment.
Some memes and online posts incorrectly claimed that the Post report indicated that Trump made the remark directly to Cohen, while other users included a year for Ivanka that did not match that of age 13 years.
To be clear, the first alleged version of the Post column indicated that Trump asked the question to an anonymous person Cohen knew. Additionally, Ivanka was born on October 30, 1981. She turned 13 on October 30, 1994, and the remark was then said to have been made by Trump in 1994 or 1995, not 1993 as the meme claims. In 1994 and 1995, Trump was at the start of his second marriage with Marla Maples.
After publishing its article on this quote, BuzzFeed News received a statement from Fred Hiattwho was the Post’s editorial page editor at the time.
“We (or the Washington Post Writers Group, our affiliate union) edit each column to try to make it as good as possible,” Hiatt told BuzzFeed News. “We don’t think it would be fair for our writers to discuss the editing process, and we don’t see what is to be gained by talking about things that aren’t published – there are countless drafts which never see the light of day.”
Other “questionable” remarks about Ivanka Trump
Returning to the 2016 Cosmopolitan article, the report noted that the remark referenced by BuzzFeed News was not “the first time Trump’s questionable references to his daughter have surfaced.”
“He told the Howard Stern Show in 2003 that she had the best body,” Cosmopolitan wrote. “The following year, he was back on Stern and agreed with the radio host that she was ‘a piece of a**.’ He also admitted on ‘The View’ that ‘J ‘I said if Ivanka wasn’t my daughter, maybe I’d go out with her.'”
These and other remarks have already been included in a compilation of comments posted on YouTube. video by New York Magazine.
Conclusion
It is possible that Trump made the remark that he was more sexually attracted to his young daughter Ivanka than to his wife, considering that there is video and audio of him making other similar comments. For example, after Trump made a remark on “The View” in 2006 that he would date Ivanka if she were not his daughter, a Trump rep later said The Associated Press said Trump was “absolutely joking.” He made fun of himself for his tendency to date younger women. It’s a sense of humor that people don’t see (from him) all the time. »
Without additional evidence, we have not yet been able to definitively confirm the veracity of the quote published by BuzzFeed News. A rating of “Not Proven” was selected for this fact check. This rating does not mean that the rumor is true or false. This simply means that we have not yet been able to find and independently review enough evidence to make a firmer decision.
For more, we previously reported more details on Trump’s remark about considering dating his daughter and the rumor that he admitted to enter the changing rooms of candidates for a beauty contest. We also published a history in 2019 over a claim regarding the same “sexually attracted to your own daughter” quote.
Sources:
Cohen, Richard. “Opinion | Our next President, the Godfather.” Washington PostApril 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-next-president-the-godfather/2016/11/21/c5040e82-b012-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html.
“Donald Trump.” British, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Donald-Trump.
Evon, Dan. “Has Donald Trump said he would like to date his daughter?” SnopesJuly 10, 2015, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/donald-trump-date-daughter/.
All right, Bruce and Hank Lewin. Trump: The chosen one: the road to perdition. Guardian Press, 2020.
Griffin, Tamerra. “A draft Washington Post column claimed that Trump said he was ‘sexually attracted’ to his teenage daughter.” BuzzFeed NewsNovember 22, 2016, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tamerragriffin/trump-asked-if-its-wrong-to-be-attracted-to-his-daughter.
“Rude things Donald Trump said about his daughters.” YoutubeNew York Magazine, May 13, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPEkk6qWkg.
Ibrahim, Nour. “Did Trump admit to going into the beauty pageant contestants’ locker room?” SnopesMarch 26, 2024, https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/03/26/trump-pageant-dressing-rooms/.
Jung, Helin. “Donald Trump reportedly once asked if it was “wrong” to be “sexually attracted” to Ivanka.” CosmopolitanNovember 22, 2016, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8353161/donald-trump-sexual-attraction-ivanka-trump/.
Kasprak, Alex. “Did Donald Trump say two lovers reminded him of his daughter Ivanka?” SnopesJuly 16, 2019, https://www.snopes.com//news/2019/07/16/trump-mcdougal-stormy-ivanka/.
“Richard Cohen.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/richard-cohen/.
Schudel, Matt. “Fred Hiatt, Washington Post Editorial Page Editor, Dies at 66.” The Washington PostDecember 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2021/12/06/fred-hiatt-dies/.
“Trump jokes he would date his daughter.” TODAY.com via Associated PressMarch 7, 2006, https://www.today.com/popculture/trump-jokes-he-d-date-daughter-wbna11714379.
