One of the details grabbing attention in the big Associated Press story today about Donald Trump's behavior toward women on the set of "The Apprentice" is another entry in a genre that has disturbed, fascinated and confused many over the course of the presidential primary season: Trump apparently had a fascination with a camerawoman — whose looks he compared to those of his daughter Ivanka.
"He would just mention it all the time," Rebecca Arndt, a camera assistant who worked on the reality show, told the Associated Press. "I remember him comparing Ivanka to her and saying that only Ivanka was prettier."
Comparing a female crew member's looks to his daughter's is among the dozens of lewd comments Trump made about and to women during his years as a reality TV boss, according to a new report from the AP. (The camerawoman's husband told the AP that Trump did not give his wife repeated, unwanted attention.)
Trump has actually been making headlines for years for his public comments about his eldest daughter. In 1999, he said on Howard Stern's radio show: "I have a deal with her. She’s 17 and doing great — Ivanka. She made me promise, swear to her that I would never date a girl younger than her. So as she grows older, the field is getting very limited."
Here are four more times he has made news for talking about his daughter, specifically about her looks:
1) "You know who’s one of the great beauties of the world, according to everybody? And I helped create her. Ivanka. My daughter Ivanka. She’s 6 feet tall, she’s got the best body. She made a lot money as a model — a tremendous amount." — Trump said this on the Howard Stern radio show in 2003, Politico reported.
2) "Ivanka is a great, great beauty. Every guy in the country wants to go out with my daughter. But she's got a boyfriend." — Trump said this in a 2004 New York Magazine profile.
3)"I don't think Ivanka would do that inside the magazine. Although she does have a very nice figure. I've said that if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her." — This one deserves a longer explanation: In 2006, Trump and Ivanka appeared on ABC's "The View," where the hosts asked what Trump would do if Playboy put Ivanka, then 24 and a former model, on the cover.
Trump responded that it would depend on whether there were nude photographs, then made his comment about dating her. "Is that terrible?" he said as the audience and hosts laughed. His office later put out a news release: "He was absolutely joking. He was making fun of himself for his tendency to date younger women."
4)"Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father ..." — Trump said this in a 2015 interview with Paul Solataroff for the September issue of Rolling Stone.
Ivanka, now 34 and a mother of three, has not commented publicly on any of these headlines.
She has, however, played an increasingly important role in her father's business and political ambitions. She and Trump's two grown sons handle much of his business portfolio. Ivanka has also been one of Trump's key surrogates on the trail. She introduced him at the Republican National Convention, she helped him craft and launch a child-care policy offering six weeks of paid maternity leave, and most recently, she is starring in a new TV ad in what my colleague Philip Rucker describes as Trump's most overt appeal yet to female voters.