Watch Trump lavish praise on the Clintons in 2008

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter)

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