President Trump used to be a fan of what he now calls the "Fake Washington Post" — as well as its owner, who's now his enemy No. 1.
In a previously unaired chunk of a 2013 interview, Trump was asked about Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post, and it bore no resemblance to how he'd describe the Amazon founder today.
"I'm a fan of The Washington Post," Trump told ABC News' Jon Karl in 2013, also heaping praise on the Graham family, who used to own the paper. "And I have to tell you I think that Jeff, who really is an amazing guy, I think he's going to bring it to that next plateau."
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Trump wasn't sure if Bezos was going to make money on the Post, but said that "ultimately, he probably will." If anything, Bezos would surely bring the paper "into the internet age," Trump told ABC News.
Today, Trump doesn't seem to hate the Post as much as the failing New York Times. But he still explicitly called the paper "fake" in a March tweet, and said it's become a "lobbyist" for Bezos. Trump's anti-Bezos opinions actually sprouted within two years of spewing niceties to ABC News, seeing as he accused Bezos of using the Post as a "tax shelter" to "screw" the public in December 2015 tweet.
Nearly three years after his first insult, Trump is still stuck on bashing Bezos. Meanwhile, his 2013 prediction — that Bezos would "ultimately" profit off the Post — is starting to come true.
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