Weeks before announcing his candidacy, Donald Trump chatted on the phone with Bill Clinton

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Just a few weeks before Donald Trump announced he was joining the GOP presidential race, former president Bill Clinton called him on the telephone and encouraged him to play a more substantial role in the Republican Party, according to associates of both men.

The call took place in late May, not long after Hillary Clinton officially announced she was running for president, The Washington Post reports. One Clinton aide says that while the phone call did take place, it was personal and the pair did not talk about the 2016 race, and another said Clinton called Trump after Trump "reached out to President Clinton a few times." The Trump sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said the call came when Trump was deciding whether to run, and that he was honest about his ambitions. They say Clinton did not urge Trump to run, but was interested in what he had to say and told him he was striking a chord with the conservative base.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.