The phrase "Oprah for president" has been uttered many times, but the idea has gained new traction following her Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech at the 75th Golden Globes ceremony. 

While Oprah hasn't made an announcement about her plans, her close friends have said she is "actively thinking" about it.

A recently unearthed clip from 1999 of the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, has revealed that back when he was thinking of running for president in the late '90s, he hoped that Oprah wouldn't be a potential political rival, but instead, his running mate.

Trump made the statement during an appearance on Larry King Live, during which he discussed running a campaign for president under the aegis of a third political party, the Reform Party. The current president didn't have very nice things to say about either the Democratic or Republican parties, but couldn't say enough kind words about Oprah.

"Oprah, I love Oprah," he said when asked who would be his ideal running mate. "Oprah would always be my first choice."

Trump added that he thought the world of Oprah. "She's really a great woman, she is a terrific woman, she's someone who is very special."


King initially seemed to think Trump was kidding, but the current president, and then-real estate baron, set him straight. "She'd be fantastic. I mean, she's popular, she's brilliant, she's a wonderful woman," he said.

More than a decade before his appearance of Larry King's show, Trump appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and talked politics. Oprah asked him specifically about a president bid.

While he was hesitant at the time to commit to the position, he did mention that he was "tired of seeing what is happening with this country."


As recently as 2015, Trump told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that Oprah would be his running mate pick. “I’d love to have Oprah,” Trump noted. “I think we’d win easily, actually.”

Trump, of course, eventually picked Indiana Republican Mike Pence as his running mate. Oprah has not yet said who she would choose as her vice president, if she were to run.