CNN on Wednesday aired audio of Donald Trump calling pop star Taylor Swift, who is 44 years his junior, ”beautiful” five times in a matter of seconds. Trump’s words, which were first reported earlier this month by Variety, were recorded last November by that publication’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, Ramin Setoodeh, for his recently published book, Apprentice in Wonderland, about the former president’s reality television background. “I think she’s beautiful—very beautiful. I find her very beautiful,” Trump said. “I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually—unusually beautiful.” Setoodeh said on CNN Wednesday that since Trump knows Swift is too famous for him to “go up against her,” this was his way of saying he likes her “in the hopes that, somehow, Taylor Swift will like him back.” Setoodeh, who interviewed Trump six times since May 2021, told CNN recently that the 78-year-old was “meandering and confusing” and exhibited “some cognitive questions” during their sit-downs.