Despite teasing a presidential bid on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show back in 1988, Donald Trump will never close the deal on his ideal running mate. Last summer, the presumptive Republican nominee teased the queen of television as a top choice when he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos they’d “win easily.” Unfortunately those dreams were squashed when Oprah endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid on Thursday. To make matters worse for the Donald, she then used her time on Jimmy Kimmel Live to giggle at the prospect of her ever being Trump’s vice president.
“I think he was just joking about that,” Oprah told Kimmel, who quickly responded: “I don’t think he was joking.”
Kimmel kept asking Oprah about whether or not she’d ever had any dealings with the New York real estate mogul’s political campaign. (After all, he is the presumptive nominee, so it’s no longer a laughing matter.) She kept chuckling, so the late night host then asked the obvious, hypothetical question: “If he did make the call, would you take the call?” Her response? “Donald, I’m with her.”
Aside from the brief gigglefest that ensued, Oprah took the opportunity to deliver a backhanded insult to Trump. Kimmel brought up the argument that if she ran for president, she “would beat both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.” This spurred a cavalcade of cheers from the audience, but Oprah doubled down, saying she “would never run for office.” With one caveat:
For many years, I used to think — until this election year, I thought — “Wow, I have no… Why do people say that? I have no qualifications to run.” I’m feeling pretty qualified. After this year, I’m feeling really qualified.
It’s not too late to start printing those Oprah/Ellen 2020 decals.