This Resurfaced Interview Where Barbara Walters Called Out Trump’s Businessman Credibility In 1990 Is Going Mega Viral
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During his campaign, President Donald Trump suggested he’d run the United States like one of his businesses — a promise that appealed to his supporters as he’s largely percieved as a rich and sucessful man (despite having what the Los Angeles Times referred to as a “disastrous” record of business deals).
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Well, in light of Trump’s tariffs facing backlash for tanking the stock market and driving up prices, a 1990 clip of broadcast journalist Barbara Walters questioning Trump’s businessman credibility during a 20/20 interview is now going viral.
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For context, Walters sat down with Trump to discuss his then-newly released book, Surviving at the Top. However, if Trump thought the interview would serve as good press for his authorship, he was mistaken. In fact, Walters suggested Trump was in massive debt at the time, saying the book would be better titled Failing at the Top.
ABC 20/20 / tiktok.com
Then, true to nature — even 30ish years ago — Trump backfired by calling the press “dishonest.” At the start of the clip, which has been viewed on TikTok over 1.1 million times, Trump says:
“I hope the general public understands how inherently dishonest the press in this country is.”
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Unwavering, Walters responds, “As a member of the press, let me try to clear up some of the things which you say aren’t true.”
She goes on to recite a Trump quote: “My bankers and I worked out a terrific deal that allows me to come out stronger than ever. I see the deal as a great victory.”
Then, making direct eye contact with Trump, she questioned, “Being on the verge of bankruptcy? Being bailed out by the banks?” Trump attempted to interupt, but she continues, “Skating on thin ice and almost drowning? That is a businessman to be admired?”
“You say on the verge of bankruptcy, Barbara, and you talk on the verge and you listen to what people are saying —” Trump said, seeming to suggest Walters was listening to rumors.
However, Walters corrected, “I talk to your bankers.”
Then, later in the interview, Trump says of one of his investments, “The Plaza’s a very valuable property. Everybody told me, ‘Oh, you paid too much, you paid too much.’ Now they’re all saying, ‘What a great deal he made out of The Plaza.'”
To which Walters simply states, “No they’re not.”
In the comment section of the video, people are largely applauding Walters for her journalism and refusal to back down.
They can’t stop giggling over her fact-checking him live.
And more than a few expressed that this clip was proof that Trump has always been “delusional.”
