In a moment that left attendees murmuring, the president interrupted his own remarks to single out a woman in the crowd, insisting she bore an uncanny resemblance to his eldest daughter. The off-script interaction, which occurred on Sunday, Dec. 4, has since reignited discussions regarding the president's history of making public, and often unsettling, comments about Ivanka Trump.
The incident began abruptly during what was intended to be a standard Christmas reception. Trump, seemingly distracted from his podium duties, pointed directly at a woman in the audience.
'Boy, you look like Ivanka,' Trump marvelled, referencing his 44-year-old daughter. Seemingly unable to move past the observation, he sought validation from the rest of the room. 'Has anyone ever told you that? I'm looking and saying, "Is that Ivanka?"'
The interaction did not end with a simple observation. In a move that observers described as uncomfortable, Donald Trump proceeded to ask the woman to display herself for the media and the other guests. 'Can you just turn around for the camera?' he asked, before doubling down on his assessment. 'Doesn't she look like Ivanka? It's the most unbelievable thing'.
Concluding the bizarre exchange, he offered what he evidently perceived as high praise: 'You look just like Ivanka, which is a great compliment, actually'.
Donald Trump Derails Festive Speech with Bizarre Snake Ramblings
Before the president began analysing the physical attributes of his guests, the atmosphere at the White House event had already taken a surreal turn. Rather than sticking to traditional holiday pleasantries, a visibly perspiring Donald Trump opened his speech with a graphic monologue about venomous reptiles in South America.
'[Peru] is known to be a rather rough place in terms of physical creatures crawling around,' Trump told the baffled crowd. He proceeded to offer grim statistics about wildlife fatalities, stating, '28,000 people die a year from a snake bite, a certain snake. It's a viper. It's said to be the most poisonous snake in the world'.
The pivot from deadly Peruvian vipers to asking a female guest to spin around for the cameras encapsulated the chaotic energy of the evening. However, for longtime observers of the president, the focus on a woman resembling Ivanka was less surprising than the snake anecdotes, fitting into a decades-long pattern of behavior.
A History of Donald Trump Making Unsettling Comments About Ivanka
This recent White House episode is far from the first time Donald Trump has raised eyebrows with remarks concerning his daughter. His history of making comments that blur the lines of fatherly affection into something more objectifying is extensive and well-documented.
In 2016, a review by CNN's KFile brought these instances back into the spotlight, following a Washington Post report on his history of crude remarks about women. The review resurfaced several disturbing clips, particularly from his appearances on The Howard Stern Show, where the shock-jock format often led to candid and crude conversations.
During a 2004 radio appearance, when Howard Stern referred to Ivanka as 'a piece of a--', Donald Trump simply agreed with the characterisation. Two years later, in a 2006 interview, the conversation turned to his daughter's physical body once again. Stern asked if Ivanka had undergone breast enhancement surgery.
'No, she didn't. I mean, I would know if she did. The answer is no. Why did she look a little more stacked?' Trump replied. When Stern pressed further, noting that she looked 'more voluptuous than ever', Trump echoed the sentiment: 'No, she didn't get them. She's actually always been very voluptuous.'
Perhaps the most infamous of these comments occurred that same year during an appearance on The View. When asked how he would react if Ivanka posed for Playboy, Donald Trump offered a reply that has haunted his public image since: 'If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. Isn't that terrible? How terrible? Is that terrible?'
The pattern dates back even further. At the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, which Ivanka hosted at the age of 16, Trump asked the then-Miss Universe, 'Don't you think my daughter's hot? She's hot, right?'
Even in later years, the remarks continued. During a 2013 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, when asked what he and Ivanka had in common, he replied, 'I was going to say s--, but I can relate to [golf and real estate].' Similarly, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he praised her beauty with a heavy caveat: 'Yeah, she's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, ya know, her father...'
Sunday's request for a look-alike to 'turn around' serves as yet another entry in a long archive of moments where Donald Trump has publicly objectified the women around him—even those in his own family.
