Claim:
In 1994 or 1995, Donald Trump asked of 13-year-old Ivanka Trump: “Is it wrong that I’m sexually attracted more strongly to her than to my wife?” mes A rating has yet to be provided on this claim.
Reddit users discussed an old story regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump in October 2024, specifically one from October 2 of that year stating he once admitted being sexually attracted to Ivanka when she was 13 years old (archived post here).
Reddit post linked to an archived PoliticalFlare.com article featuring this headline: “Trump Admits Sexual Attraction to Ivanka When She Was 13.”
Reddit posts from July 14, 2024 from this same subreddit were linked to an article posted the same day by PoliticalFlare with a headline “Trump on Ivanka: ‘Is It Wrong to Feel Sexual Attraction for Her More than for Your Wife'”
We first traced this quote back to a 2020 book titled, ‘Trump: The Chosen One: Road to Perdition.” That source cited Cosmopolitan magazine on November 22, 2016, which quoted from original reporting done by BuzzFeed News.
BuzzFeed News’ November 22, 2016 article — also published Nov 22 — claimed the supposed Trump quote only appeared in an early and unpublished draft from The Washington Post, sent out for distribution through syndicated outlets such as BuzzFeed News and other outlets that syndicate the story. BuzzFeed News did not claim its journalists had personally reviewed or examined this unpublished draft; rather it provided proof via one unnamed source as evidence against Donald Trump’s statements in that draft column.
Snopes reached out to editors of The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News as well as Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign in order to inquire as to their authenticity; we received no responses in reply.
The Origins of the Quote An opinion column written by Richard Cohen for the Washington Post entitled, “Our Next President is… the Godfather,” featured this controversial line as its headline on Nov 21, 2016 evening and was later published without it in full form by them later that same night without including it at all.
BuzzFeed News reported, with one unnamed source as its primary source, that one early draft of Cohen’s Post column included this paragraph:
Jared Kushner, known by many as Tom Hagen for marrying Donald Trump’s stunning daughter Ivanka — “Can I ask you something?” Trump once asked someone I know regarding Kushner as an 13 year-old child “Is it wrong for a father to find himself more sexually attracted to their own daughter than his wife?,” has recently lost some of his Boy Scout appeal due to an astounding $2.5 Million pledge by his father before Kushner was admitted into Harvard University!
The following text appears in the published version of this story on The Post website, without reference to an earlier draft which included this quote:
Jared Kushner has recently shed much of the Boy Scout image he held as husband to Ivanka Trump and father to Tom Hagen pledge of $2.5 Million from Trump for admission into Harvard.
Some memes and posts that misrepresented what The Post reported incorrectly claimed Trump spoke directly with Cohen to deliver this remark; other users included an incorrect year for Ivanka that does not correspond with when she would have turned 13 years old.
To clarify, an early draft of the Post column stated that President Donald Trump asked an unidentified individual familiar to Cohen the question about her daughter Ivanka; Ivanka turned 13 on Oct 30 1994 so the statement may have come either between 1994 or 1995 when Trump began his second marriage to Marla Maples (not 1993 as suggested in meme).
BuzzFeed News received an official statement from Fred Hiatt, then serving as editorial page editor of The Washington Post at that time.
“Our Washington Post Writers Group edits every column to make them as good as they possibly can be,” Hiatt explained to BuzzFeed News. “We do not think it would be fair for our writers or anyone involved to discuss our editorial processes; there may well be drafts out there which never see publication!”
BuzzFeed News referenced another “questionable” comment attributed to Donald Trump from Cosmopolitan in 2016. As reported, these references weren’t the first time such remarks about Ivanka Trump had surfaced; indeed they have also surfaced previously in other forms such as Cosmopolitan articles published between 2016-2017.
Cosmopolitan reported: In 2003, Donald Trump said on Howard Stern Show ‘She has the best body,’ while by 2004 he agreed with radio host that Ivanka Trump was an ‘A piece of a**.’ Furthermore he revealed on The View if Ivanka hadn’t been his daughter “…perhaps I might date her. ‘”
New York Magazine published these remarks and others as part of a compilation video posted to YouTube by The Atlantic Media Co.
Conclusion
Trump may have made remarks suggesting he finds his young daughter Ivanka more sexually appealing than his wife Melania during various television appearances, with video and audio footage existing of similar statements being made about her on “The View.” For instance, after Trump made comments indicating this to The Associated Press back in 2006 mentioning how much younger women Trump preferred dating him personally than ever before dating older ones as Ivanka if not his daughter; his representative later explained this as being nothing other than jokey and that people don’t see much from their President.”
Without further evidence, we were not yet able to verify the quote from BuzzFeed News with certainty and have therefore selected “Unproven”. This does not indicate whether or not it’s true; rather it indicates we weren’t yet able to locate enough independent evidence that would allow for a more definitive determination.
As background reading, we previously covered additional information regarding Donald Trump’s remarks regarding possibly dating his own daughter as well as rumor he once admitted going into changing rooms of beauty pageant contestants. Furthermore, in 2019 we ran an article detailing a claim regarding that same “sexually attracted to your own daughter” quote with sources.
Cohen, Richard. “Opinion | Donald Trump Is Our Next President.” Washington Post (2023, Apr 12), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-next-president-the-godfather/2016/11/21/c5040e82-b012-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html “Donald Trump is our next president”. Britannica.com/biography/Donald-Trump, Evon Dan’s piece about whether Trump would date his daughter was featured as fact check on 11 July 2015. Meanwhile Fine Bruce Lewin wrote their book Trump: The Chosen One Road to Perdition which explored their life together as father and son before moving back and forth between New York and Palm Beach until ultimately meeting one another at Trump Tower on the last date of February 2016. Gatekeeper Press, 2020. Griffin, Tamerra. “Draft Washington Post Column Suggested Trump Was Sexually Attracted To His Teenage Daughter.” BuzzFeed News 22 November 2016, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tamerragriffin-trump-asked-if-it’s-wrong-to-be-attracted-his-daughter Donald Trump Has Been Unkind To His Daughters.” YouTube, New York Magazine. 13 May 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPEkk6qWkgIbrahim, Nur (2017) “Did Trump Admit Going into Beauty Pageant Contestants’ Changing Room?” Snopes 26 March. Snopes.com provided this story about Donald Trump once asking whether it was wrong for him to feel sexual attraction towards Ivanka Trump at a pageant dressing-rooms dressing-room, on March 26, 2024, according to Jung, Helin’s allegations: – Donald allegedly asked whether it would be considered inappropriate if they became romantically attracted towards her during one event in 2024: (Donald was accused of asking whether this action constituted sexual attraction). Cosmopolitan.com published on 22 Nov 2016, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8353161/donald-trump-sexual-attraction-ivanka-trump/, while Kasprak Alex wrote an article for Snopes that claims President Donald Trump did in fact say two lovers reminded him of daughter Ivanka Trump; you can read it at https://snopes.com/2019/07/16/trump-mcdougal-stormy-ivanka/ “Richard Cohen.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/richard-cohen/; Schaudle Matt’s report that Fred Hiatt of Washington Post Editorial Page Editor has died was posted at six December 2021 https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2021/12/06/fred-hiatt-dies/ while Donald Trump joked he might date daughter while appearing before Today through The Associated Press (7 March 2006, https://today.today.com/popculture/trump-jokes-hed-date-daughter AP11714379)
