Records Show Scant Reagan-Trump Ties

Reagan Library files indicate real-estate developer was rebuffed in many entreaties to former president

Like many hopefuls before him, presidential candidate Donald Trump has embraced Ronald Reagan, the icon of the modern Republican Party.

President Reagan greets Donald Trump at a 1987 White 
House reception. Records indicate the two men were far 
from close. Photo: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

“I have great respect for him,” Mr. Trump said on NBC. “I helped him. I knew him. He liked me and I liked him.”

Mr. Trump, on a variety of television shows, has compared himself to Mr. Reagan—“he had a great heart, and I have a great heart,” he told Fox News—and has strongly implied the two men weren’t only allies, but friends.

LINK: Donald Trump Donated Heavily To Democrats, 
Especially During Election Which Put Reid And Pelosi 
In Power

But a peek inside the archives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, host of Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, tells a different story. Aides in the Reagan White House, peppered with invitations to Trump events, mostly kept the real-estate mogul at arm’s length, except when they were trying to stop his donations to Democrats or soothe his “large ego,” as one memo put it.

Among the few signs of a personal connection between the men are two photos of them shaking hands in greeting lines, including one that the president mis-signed as “Reagan Reagan.” Mr. Trump doesn’t appear in Mr. Reagan’s extensive diary.

The records referencing Mr. Trump were opened to the public for the first time this summer after a request by The Wall Street Journal.

“Everybody says they knew Reagan now,” said Frank J. Donatelli, a former Reagan administration official and author of the “ego” memo, who said he was irked by the comparisons between the 40th president and Mr. Trump.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, “I didn’t know him well,” but added that friends close to the president told him Mr. Reagan admired Mr. Trump. “He felt very good about me,” Mr. Trump said. “Frankly, he liked my attitude.”

One Trump supporter, Roger Stone, a former Reagan administration official who worked for Mr. Trump’s campaign this year, said Mr. Trump was a longtime Reagan supporter. Mr. Stone also noted that Mr. Trump and his father served on Mr. Reagan’s 1979-80 presidential finance committee and attended his launch announcement.

One month after Mr. Reagan announced his candidacy on Nov. 13, 1979, Mr. Trump, his parents, sister and brother each made the maximum federal campaign contribution allowed—but not to Mr. Reagan. The Trumps all gave to the re-election campaign of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.