Watch: Boyish Donald Trump Says He Would Run For President Under Only One Condition


Did Donald Trump always know that a presidential bid was in the cards for him?

With the Republican front-runner cementing his position at the top of the pile with a resounding victory in New York, media is closely scrutinizing questions of whether the real estate mogul had always desired to one day run for the highest office in the land.

As it turns out, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey almost two decades ago, when asked if he would run for president in the future, Donald Trump had said “Probably not.”

However, even back then, Trump did mention the one condition that could make him run for president.

“I just don’t think I really have the inclination to do it. I love what I am doing, I really like it… I probably wouldn’t do it. But I do get tired of seeing what’s happening with this country, and if it got so bad, I would never want to rule it out totally, because I am really getting tired of seeing what’s happening with this country — how we are making other people live like kings, and we are not.”

When asked what he thought his chances would be if he were to run for president, he said, “I think I’d win. I’ll tell you what: I wouldn’t go in to lose.”

While Donald Trump’s aspirations of running for the Oval Office have been well-documented over the last few years, the present video provides surprising proof of just how far back his presidential aspirations reach.

The video was part of a larger interview that Donald Trump gave Oprah Winfrey during his appearance on a 1988 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote his book Trump: Art of the Deal. Although the interview started with the literary aspects of the book, it soon turned political in nature.

Trump, evidently not pleased with America’s foreign policy under then-president Ronald Reagan, expressed his displeasure at the country’s free trade laws. The New York-based businessman had recently forayed into playing policy wonk via $95,000 in newspaper ads railing against Japan and Saudi Arabia, reports Fusion.

One of the ads, titled “There’s nothing wrong with America Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure,” is provided below.

Donald Trump's presidential bid goes far back.
[Image via OWN/YouTube]
After the publication of the advertisement, in which he urged that Japan and Saudi Arabia be required to pay for the U.S. defense of the gulf, the boyish-looking Trump was understandably flooded with questions of whether he had any political ambitions.

“I have NO interest of running for president,” Trump had told Time in 1987, one year before his interview with Oprah.

How times have changed!

Almost two decades from the day when the interview was recorded, Donald Trump has established himself as the undisputed front-runner in the Republican race for nomination after winning the New York primary in a landslide. If there’s one thing that has not changed from that interview, it is Trump’s views on America’s foreign policy.

We would have to wait to see if Donald Trump’s aspirations of becoming America’s president come true, but his interview with Oprah Winfrey two decades ago is proof that he has been harboring them for some time now.

[Image via OWN/YouTube]

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