President-elect Donald Trump is infamous for the way he talks about women, both in general and when speaking about specific people. And according to a Washington Post columnist, not even his own daughter Ivanka is immune from it. Before the Washington Post edited it out on Tuesday, Richard Cohen wrote a column claiming that Trump once asked someone he knows a very disturbing question about his then-13-year-old daughter. "Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?" Trump allegedly asked, according to the original draft of Cohen's column.
According to BuzzFeed News, the draft of Cohen's Washington Post column was sent around to other outlets on Monday for syndication. But when it was published on Tuesday, the column, titled "Our next president, the Godfather," had a small—but very significant—omission. Cohen's claim about Trump asking the question about Ivanka was gone.
The column is about how Trump blends his business, politics, and family together in a Godfather-like fashion. In the original version, Cohen dropped the bombshell quote while introducing Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner:
"Jared Kushner, our Tom Hagen, who married Trump’s stunning daughter Ivanka— "Can I ask you something?" Trump asked someone I know, about his then-13-year-old kid, "Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?" — has lately lost some of this Boy Scout aura. It turns out Kushner's admission to Harvard was preceded by his father’s $2.5 million pledge."
The original version of the column including that quote wasn't published by any outlets. Instead, this is the edited version that was printed:
"Jared Kushner, our Tom Hagen, who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka, has lately lost some of this Boy Scout aura. It turns out Kushner’s admission to Harvard was preceded by his father’s $2.5 million pledge."
The Washington Post's editorial page editor Fred Hiatt dismissed questions about the edit. "We (or the Washington Post Writers Group, our affiliated syndicate) edit every column to try to make it as good as it can be," Hiatt told BuzzFeed News. "We don’t think it would be fair to our writers to discuss the editing process, and don’t see what is to be gained by talking about things that are not published—there are countless drafts that never see the light of day."
It's not clear who told the story to Cohen or whether or not the anecdote is even true and that could be part of the reason the comment was taken out of the column.
With that said, of course, the president-elect has a history of making extremely vulgar and offensive comments about women. Trump has said previously that, when he met then-12-year-old Paris Hilton, he "wasn't interested" but the pre-teen "was beautiful." He's also known for reportedly creeping around beauty pageant dressing rooms while the contestants—including some as young as 15—changed. When one of the contestants told Trump's daughter about the creeping, Ivanka reportedly replied, "Yeah, he does that."
Ivanka has reportedly had to deal with her own father making creepy remarks about her in the past as well. Trump allegedly compared a camera operator on The Apprentice to his daughter and said "only Ivanka was prettier" than her. He's also agreed with Howard Stern that his daughter is "a piece of ass." And during an appearance on The View in 2006, Trump said Ivanka has "a very nice figure" while sitting next to her. He added, "If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
