President Donald Trump dished on his relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr., emphasizing repeatedly that the late Kennedy scion “liked” him and would often come to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump, in a lengthy softball interview on Fox News’ The Five, was asked about his ties to Kennedy, in light of the FX television series Love Story, which recounts the relationship between Kennedy and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.
“I actually knew him and liked him, and he liked me, believe it or not,” Trump said over the phone. “He actually put me on the cover of his magazine, George, and I got to be friendly with him, and he would go down to Mar-a-Lago with me, and with [his wife] Carolyn. It was a tragic thing.”
The couple died in a July 1999 plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy was 38 and Bessette Kennedy was 33.
Trump, 79, then reiterated that Kennedy liked him.
“I knew him very well, actually. He liked me. Can you believe it? He liked me, and I liked him,” Trump said, before complimenting his looks. “Let me tell you, he was a very handsome guy. He was a handsome guy. You don’t get better looking.”
Trump then claimed Kennedy had once told him he would eventually run for Senate.
“Nobody would’ve beaten him, and he probably would’ve ended up being president, because he had a lot of good things,” Trump said.
The president then gossiped—in a “nice” way—about the couple.
“They would go down to Mar-a-Lago together and they had a very interesting relationship. They would bicker. I want to be nice. They would bicker together—in other words, have little fights, and then they would make up and start kissing wildly,” Trump said.
“It was one of those relationships, and you never know how those relationships are going to turn out, frankly. I’ve seen them go on for years, and I’ve seen them go on for about two days before they broke up. But they would bicker like few people I’ve ever seen,“ he continued.
In 1996, Kennedy flew a group of George magazine advertisers to Mar-a-Lago for a private event, where Trump was reportedly in attendance.
”The bottom line is... every woman loved him. He was a truly good-looking guy, that was a nice guy, I think he would’ve been a senator easily... and I think he would’ve gone on perhaps to be the president."
The president, on the friendly Fox airwaves, was not asked how JFK Jr. might have responded to Trump plastering his name onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was intended to serve as a “living memorial” to the 35th president. Several Kennedy family members have naturally opposed it.
