A document from 1995 lists half-a-dozen White House receptions, dinners and other events to which Donald Trump was invited.
A document from 1995 lists half-a-dozen White House receptions, dinners and other events to which Donald Trump was invited.
These days, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fire plenty of withering invective at each other in the battle for the White House.
But the billionaire tycoon, seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was once on good terms with the Clintons, newly-released documents show.
A 450-page trove of records released on Tuesday by the Clinton Library shows Democratic frontrunner Hillary’s husband Bill — US President between 1993 and 2001 — knew Mr Trump in the 1990s, when the current Republican frontrunner’s name came up in many White House memos.
One document from 1995 lists half-a-dozen White House receptions, dinners and other events to which the real estate mogul was invited.
In June 1996, Bill Clinton’s personal secretary Betty Currie sent an email to a White House staffer asking whether to mail Mr Trump a letter congratulating him on his 50th birthday.
The letter was cancelled three days later. Another draft letter to Mr Trump was nixed in December 2000.
In June 2000, Mr Clinton took part in a photo op with Mr Trump in his Trump Tower, where the President was due to attend a fundraiser.
The documents also included a copy of the title page from Mr Trump’s book The Art of the Deal inscribed to White House aide Mark Middleton.
The Clinton Library released the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Buzzfeed.
Although they contain no startling revelations, the documents show the White House followed Mr Trump’s activities in 1999 during the build-up to a presidential election the following year.
A memo intended to prepare Bill Clinton for an interview advised how to answer questions on whether presidential campaigns by Mr Trump or other celebrities would be “demeaning” to the White House.
