A week or so before September 25, Donald Trump and Roger Stone sit with a reporter from The New York Times to discuss the upcoming presidential election. Trump shows journalist Adam Nagourney a poll from his favorite paper, National Enquirer, that suggests he has a shot at becoming president.
The Enquirer polled only 100 people, but Trump says this is proof that the nation is “clamoring” to see announce his candidacy.
”Those are the real people,” Mr. Trump declared of the Enquirer readers, earnestly laying his hands across his desk. Roger Stone, his paid consultant, who was sitting across the desk, offering Mr. Trump the occasional pointer during the 45-minute interview, added, ”That is the Trump constituency.”
The New York Times
What Nagourney doesn’t know is that the poll is intended to show support for Trump. The paper’s new owner is Trump’s friend and will use the paper to help him again in 2012 and in 2016.
Apparently, Nagourney also doesn’t know that Trump almost ran for president once already. “Mr. Trump has never before displayed much interest in politics,” he writes, despite Trump teasing a campaign 12 years ago, spending tens of thousands on ads condemning U.S. foreign policy, and trying to be named a special ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Trump says he will only run for president when he’s sure he can win, which is exactly what an anonymous friend told Newsweek about him in 1987. Today, Trump believes he’ll have his best chance when the economy is bad and Americans need something to lift them up.
Something that stands out during the interview all these years later is that Trump’s policy ideas see a major shift between now and a month from now. Today, Trump says he supports big tax cuts for the rich. A few months later, he’ll dip his toes into the race while calling for a one-time wealth tax. (Of course, he never enacts a wealth tax or anything similar during his presidency.)
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Photo: Getty Images via HuffPost