Upon learning that Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, read Glenn Plaskin’s 1990 Playboy interview with Donald Trump, we asked for and received a comment from the author, a Lower Manhattan resident, president of the Gateway Tenants Association and celebrity interviewer. Over the years, as Entertainment reporter for The New York Daily News, he interviewed such notables as Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, Calvin Klein, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Ted Kennedy, Joan Rivers, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, among hundreds of others.
Glenn Plaskin:
“Who ever thought that my 11-hour interview with Donald Trump back in l990 would result in the German Chancellor reading it to prepare for a meeting with the President 26 years later? The interview, conducted over 6 weeks, was designed to be both issue-oriented and personal. I remember being up in Mr. Trump’s helicopter, just the two us, talking about his relationships and marriage and business. And what struck me most was a sly wit and willingness to answer anything. I’m not a political correspondent and have no comment on his Presidency. But I can tell you that Mr. Trump was eerily consistent, almost prophetic, in his pronouncements in Playboy, many of which now follow his policies.”
