What quote did Donald Trump make about dating his daughter and when was it first reported?

1. The provable quote and when it surfaced

The verifiable, on-camera quote is the 2006 comment on The View in which Trump joked about Ivanka, saying words to the effect of “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” and adding self-deprecating qualifiers; that exchange was recorded and reported in 2006, with news outlets and later retrospectives reproducing the clip and transcript ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Multiple outlets have archived and linked the video of the March 2006 appearance, and fact-checkers have treated that specific line as an established, documented remark from that broadcast ^{[1] [2]}.

2. Other attributed lines and the weaker sourcing

A far stronger and more compromising attribution—an alleged 1993/1994 question reportedly asking “Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?” about a then‑13‑year‑old Ivanka—does not rest on a recorded on‑the‑record source; fact-checkers have traced that phrasing to later books, memes and to reporting about a draft of a syndicated Washington Post column that circulated in 2016 but was published without the line ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}. Snopes and other fact‑checks have documented the chain: the phrase surfaced in social posts and a 2020 book that cited a 2016 Cosmopolitan/BuzzFeed lineage, and the most direct contemporary lead is an unpublished or removed sentence in a circulated column draft rather than an independently verifiable contemporaneous quote ^{[4] [5]}.

3. Context and how spokespeople and outlets handled the remarks

When the 2006 The View exchange drew attention, Trump’s representatives characterized the comment as a joke—“making fun of himself for his tendency to date younger women”—and outlets reported both the video and that explanation; mainstream fact‑checking and compilation pieces treat the The View line as authentic while treating the 1990s attribution as unproven ^{[2] [1] [4]}. Subsequent citations of Trump’s praise for Ivanka’s appearance in interviews—such as a 2015 Rolling Stone exchange where he praised her “beauty” and continued a similar vein of remark—are distinct but consistent examples that reporters point to when describing a pattern of awkward or lewd public comments about his daughter ^[3].

4. Why the provenance matters: reporting, drafts and social memes

The provenance difference is critical: a televised 2006 remark has a traceable video record and contemporaneous press coverage ^{[1] [2]}, whereas the more egregious alleged 1990s question was amplified via an early circulated but edited column draft, later media summaries, books and viral memes—but not a verifiable primary source—leading reputable fact‑checkers to classify it as unproven or unsupported ^{[4] [5] [6]}. That divergence explains why some outlets and aggregators repeat the sensational phrasing despite the absence of a credible original citation, while mainstream fact‑check organizations caution readers about the quote’s shaky chain of custody ^{[4] [5]}.

5. Bottom line for readers

The concrete answer: the documented quote is the 2006 on‑camera line—“If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her”—first reported in coverage of Trump’s March 2006 appearance on The View and retained in video archives and news reports ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The far more explicit allegation about him asking in the 1990s whether it was “wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife” first appeared in modern circulation via a 2016 draft‑related report and later books and memes, but that phrasing lacks independent verification and has been debunked or labeled unproven by fact‑checking organizations ^{[4] [5] [6]}.