Bill Clinton in Team of Five, by Kate Brower

On Principles & Values: 2015: Encouraged Trump to run for President

Bill Clinton may have been the reason Trump ran in the first place. He called Trump in late May 2015, a month after his wife announced her candidacy, and reportedly told him that he thought his message was resonating with frustrated conservatives who felt overlooked by the Republican establishment. He was intrigued when Trump confided in him that he was considering running for president. Clinton told Trump that he was tapping into a big part of the Republican electorate that was tired of career politicians. ("It's a complicated story," Trump told me when I asked him directly whether Clinton encouraged him to run for president.) Trump announced his candidacy weeks later.

When I asked Trump if he could see himself becoming friendly with a former president after leaving office or rekindling a friendship with Bill Clinton, as onetime rivals and former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had done, he said, "It's possible. Anything's possible."

Source: Team of Five, by Kate Andersen Brower Apr 21, 2020

The above quotations are from Team of Five The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump by Kate Andersen Brower. Click here for other excerpts from Team of Five The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump by Kate Andersen Brower. Click here for other excerpts by Bill Clinton. Click here for a profile of Bill Clinton.
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Page last updated: Mar 16, 2021