The more than 450 pages of records scheduled for release on Tuesday promised to show how the Bill Clinton White House concerned itself with Donald Trump. Those documents, containing references to birthday notes and event invitations, might have revealed a strong link between the front-running presidential candidates of both political parties today. But they didn’t.
What the documents released on Tuesday by the Clinton Library in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from BuzzFeed do show is that Trump received periodic, but fleeting consideration from Clinton’s staff: a photo op, a few emails, references to his public statements and controversies in which he was involved.
Here are the highlights:
The autographed book:
The records included a photocopy of the title page of Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” bearing what appeared to be a message and the signature of the author. The book was addressed to Clinton Chief of Staff Mark Middleton and bore the messages “To Mark – Best Wishes” and “Your Mom is the Best.”
‘If you two don’t know each other you should’:
In a 1993 letter to President Clinton, a man named Tony August suggested that the two connect.
“I’m also not a matchmaker, but if you two don’t know each other you should,” he wrote. “You have much in common, age, broad vision for the future and most importantly, the resources and desire to make America bigger and better than it already is.”
Preparation for media questions about a possible Trump presidential bid:
Trump is referred to deep into what appears to be a 26-page briefing assembled in preparation for an interview President Clinton would have with Bryant Gumbel, then a host of CBS’s “The Early Show.”
The wording of the question for which Clinton prepared revealed how unbelievable a Trump candidacy seemed at the time. He was lumped in with actors Cybil Shepherd and Warren Beatty and former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (who would become a Minnesota governor). The question suggested that the very prospect of any of them running represented a “demeaning” of the office.
