Watch Trump lavish praise on the Clintons in 2008

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter)

published 25 October 2016

If this 2008 clip of Donald Trump gushing over Hillary Clinton's huge potential is any indication, not even he knew he'd someday be trying to convince American voters she'd be a "disaster" for the country. During an interview with NY1 eight years ago, Trump said Clinton was "going to go down" in history "at a minimum as a great senator," but he had an inkling "her history [was] far from being over." "I think she is a great wife to a president and I think Bill Clinton was a great president. You know, you look at the country then, the economy was doing great," Trump said, going on to call the then-New York senator "a great woman."

Perhaps even more surprising was Trump's sadness at how Clinton was "roughed up" in the 2008 election. "I'm not knocking the other side — you know, you want to win a battle so if it gets a little bit nasty, it is politics, and politics is a tough game. But I thought she was perhaps unnecessarily roughed up," Trump said.

Which begs the question: What would 2008 Trump have to say about someone calling Clinton a "nasty woman"? Catch a glimpse of the Trump that was, below. Becca Stanek