Jay Leno, with Donald Trump, Dec 7 1999


Another Donald Trump interview, this time pre-Melania, from December 1999. His views 20 years ago are remarkably the same as his views today, and yet the media freaks out now that he says the same things, whereas media pundits loved him back then.

As I said above, it seems like he was putting himself out there to be vetted without actually running at that point, to see what vulnerabilities he would have as a candidate. His views of Pat Buchanan are pretty funny, although views I don't share, having read 6 of Buchanan's books. Ironic, because Trump campaigned and won on precisely the same stances as Buchanan championed since 1992, 7 years before this interview. And watching both Trump and Buchanan interviewed, I never got the impression either was not a supporter of the other.