Donald Trump has unleashed a war of words on
Hillary and Bill Clinton as the front-running GOP presidential contender charges ahead in his White House bid, but he once counted the Democratic power couple among his friends.
"He liked them and their star quality, and he respected a lot of things Bill Clinton did as president," Edward Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania who is close to the Clintons, tells
The New York Times.
"That's all out the window now."
The Times notes in 1999, Trump gushed to CNBC about the former president's political skills, saying; "I wish I could be like that. I just can't," and years later, recalled watching Bill Clinton work a crowd.
"He shook hands with everybody out there," Trump marveled, the Times reports. "And some of these people had filthy hands."
Trump also invited the Clintons to his third wedding to current wife Melania in 2005, has
played golf with Bill Clinton, and, according to the Times, defended the ex-president when a sex scandal engulfed the Clinton White House, telling CNN, "He's probably got the toughest skin I've ever seen, and I think he's a terrific guy."
In a 2008 interview with the cable news network, Trump dismissed the scandal as "totally unimportant," adding the subsequent congressional impeachment attempt was "nonsense."
After the Clintons left the White House, Trump tried to persuade them to move into the Trump building in Manhattan, the Times reports. They chose New York City's suburban Westchester County.
"His overtures for them to vacation at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., were also rebuffed," the Times reports. "The Clintons preferred the Dominican Republic."
And when Bill Clinton couldn't get into an exclusive Westchester golf club, Trump took credit for welcoming him to his then-new Trump National Golf Club near the Clinton's home, the Times reports.
"He's a great gentleman, a good golfer and a wonderful guy," Trump said at the time.
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