The Trump Files: The Many Times Donald Praised Hillary Clinton

Ivylise Simones

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Until the election, we’re bringing you “The Trump Files,” a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.

It’s Election Day. Still undecided about whom to vote for? Perhaps these words of endorsement might help you make up your mind. They’re about Hillary Clinton—and they came from Donald Trump. He’s lavishly praised Clinton and her husband for years, including the time when he…

…told a reporter that “Hillary Clinton is a great woman. And a good woman.”

“I think she’s going to go down, at a minimum, as a great senator,” Trump told NY1, a New York cable news channel, after Clinton lost the Democratic primary to Barack Obama in 2008. “I think she is a great wife to a president, and I think Bill Clinton was a great president.”

…talked up Hillary in his book.

Trump made sure to include a photo of himself with Clinton within the first 10 pages of his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, along with a fawning caption. “The First Lady is a wonderful woman who has handled pressure incredibly well,” he wrote.

Trump Clinton

 

…praised her hard work during a Fox News interview.

“I really like her and her husband both a lot,” Trump told Greta Van Susteren during the 2012 campaign. “I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she’s given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her.”

…wanted Clinton to win the nomination in 2008.

Wolf Blitzer asked Trump in 2007 about Clinton, his current sidekick Rudy Giuliani, and the pair’s chances of getting presidential nominations. “They’re both terrific people, and I hope they both get the nomination,” Trump said, adding at another point that “I know her…very well. She’s very talented.”

blogged that she’d make a great president.

“I know Hillary and I think she’d make a great president or vice-president,” Trump wrote in a 2008 blog post discovered by BuzzFeed.

…wanted to help her and Bill buy a house.

Trump lamented to Larry King in 1999 that the Clintons hadn’t turned to him for help in buying a house in Chappaqua, New York. “I just wish I could have maybe represented him in buying the house, and her, because I think I could save them about $600,000 or $700,000,” he said. Trump was exploring a run for the Reform Party presidential nomination at the time, but he still told King of his future political rival, “I like her very much.”

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate