Trump Issues Big Oprah Prediction: 'I Know Her Very Well'
President Donald Trump finally responded Tuesday to speculation regarding a potential presidential run by media mogul and famed television host Oprah Winfrey.
During the media availability portion of Trump’s immigration meeting at the White House with lawmakers, a reporter asked the president if he thought he could beat Winfrey in 2020 if she does decide to challenge him.
Trump replied that he would beat Winfrey, though he does not think she will run. Still, if she does, Trump said he thinks a potential match-up between the two of them would be “a lot of fun.”
“Yeah, I’ll beat Oprah. Oprah would be a lot of fun,” Trump told reporters. “I know her very well,” he added, prior to noting that before he went into politics, he and his family appeared on one of her “last shows.”
“No, I like Oprah,” he said, while clarifying, “I don’t think think she’s going to run.”
It’s not the first time Trump has expressed his admiration for the television host.
In a June 2015 interview with ABC News, then-candidate Trump expressed similar sentiments, even going so far as to say he would “love” to have Winfrey as his running mate.
I think Oprah would be great. I’d love to have Oprah,” Trump said. “I think we’d win easily, actually.”
Trump had the same idea 16 years earlier, when he was considering running for president in 1999 on the Reform Party ticket.
At the time, CNN host Larry King asked Trump who his dream vice president would be.
“I love Oprah,” Trump responded, while smiling. “Oprah would always be my first choice.”
“I’ll tell you, she’s really a great woman, though. She is a terrific woman. She’s somebody that’s very special,” he added, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The president’s appreciation for Winfrey is apparently shared by his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who praised Winfrey’s “empowering & inspiring” speech at the Golden Globes Sunday, during which she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award.
“Just saw @Oprah’s empowering & inspiring speech at last night’s #GoldenGlobes,” Ivanka Trump tweeted Monday. “Let’s all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP.”
It’s currently unclear whether Winfrey wants to be president, though CNN reported Monday that she is “actively thinking” about running, according to two of her close friends.
On Tuesday, one of Winfrey’s closest confidants, “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King, said the media mogul is “intrigued” by the idea of launching a presidential campaign.
“I do think she’s intrigued by the idea, I do think that,” King, a co-host of “CBS This Morning” and a close confidant of Oprah, said during the program Tuesday.
However, King, who also serves as editor-at-large for The Oprah Magazine, was keen on adding that she is not actively “considering” running for president, at least not at the moment.
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