At The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, we think the ongoing Trump Trial is about as gossipy and enthralling as any episode of The Real Housewives. With that in mind, we’re recapping the drama like we’d write about any weekly Bravo show—with plenty of wit and snark.
Now here’s one name I didn’t expect to see as I was doing my daily research on the ongoing Donald Trump hush-money trial: Oprah Winfrey.
Say what?
It’s going to take a minute for me to summarize how we got here, so stay with me. Today, Trump returned to court—now, sans Stormy Daniels—to sit around and listen to a handful of fairly tame testimonies from several witnesses.
First up, former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout returned to the stand to clarify how Trump signs his checks. (He always does it himself, never allows an assistant to do it.) Then, a handful of AT&T representatives stop by to verify a handful of phone calls and messages sent between Trump and Michael Cohen—who is set to take the stand next week.
It’s all fairly routine stuff here. You’ve probably called an AT&T rep—or another phone service—once in your life. You know how tiresome and boring it can be. This is how our Friday in court goes… until we hear the name Larry King.
Okay, still no alarm bells going off quite yet, but let me explain. Trump’s team wants to strike a 1999 interview Trump did with King from the record as evidence. The prosecution used this video to prove that Trump, who brags about his knowledge of campaign finance law in the clip, understood what he was doing when he potentially broke the law. The defense, however, claims that campaign finance laws have changed since 2019.
Judge Merchan, ultimately, sides with the defense. The interview is struck from the record. Goodbye, Larry!
But because I am nosy, I wanted to see Trump say these words with his own eyes. You can watch the whole interview, which is on YouTube. But if you don’t want to sit through 40 minutes of Trump (who has the time!), allow me to flag the most important moment in this clip—which, no, is not about campaign finance law.
It’s about Oprah. Namely, the fact that Oprah would be Trump’s first pick as vice president if he were to run for President.
Apparently, back in 1999, Trump had better taste. After Trump talks about his potential campaign strategy, King asks who he’d pick as his VP. Trump hesitates, claiming he hasn’t gotten that far yet—after all, back in 1999, Mike Pence was still a conservative talk show host, not a politician yet—but then comes forward with his answer: Oprah.
“I love Oprah,” Trump says in the clip. “She’s really a great woman, she’s a terrific woman. She’s someone who is very special.”
Pigs have flown: I find myself agreeing with Donald J. Trump.
This all just goes to show that there’s never a dull day in the Trump trial. Yes, we may all be waiting on Cohen, one of the star witnesses. But even in a day of courtroom purgatory, we’ll still find a way to stumble upon wacky old videos of Trump. Thank goodness Oprah didn’t pick up the phone back in 2016 and 2020—let’s keep her away from the election this year, too.
