Donald Trump first tested the waters to run for president in 1988 — three decades before his election to the White House, according to his then-pollster.
“I did the first poll for Donald Trump to test his chances of being elected president of the United States — in 1987!” veteran pollster Doug Schoen writes in his forthcoming memoir about his 50 years in politics titled, “POWER: THE 50 TRUTHS, The Definitive Insider’s Guide.”
“When I conducted Trump’s first private presidential poll in 1987, he was planning to run as a moderate independent, not the hard-right Republican he is today. He was once a registered Democrat,” said Schoen.
Back then, Trump was known as “The Donald” in the tabloids.
Trump was an astute reader, the veteran pollster noted.
“Trump is a tabloid headline-writer manqué. When I worked with him in the 1980s, other politicians were scrutinizing the New York Times. His principal daily read was the brassy New York Post,” Schoen writes.
At the time, he thought a Trump bid for the White House was “ridiculous.”
The survey found it was “very unlikely” that Trump would be elected president and had just a “15 to 20 percent favorability” rating because he wasn’t widely known yet. George H. W. Bush, the sitting vice president, was elected president in 1988.
But Schoen said he noticed firsthand Trump’s “unique” pied-piper appeal with the public that would later land him in the White House — defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 but losing re-election to Joe Biden in 2020.
“The first time I realized that Donald Trump had a political future was when I saw him at his casinos in Atlantic City. The casinos were heading for bankruptcy. Yet when he arrived, people would rush toward him to shake his hand or just to touch him, as they would a religious figure,” Schoen writes.
“This frenzied reaction was a function of the fame he had achieved for his gold-plated lifestyle in the New York gossip columns. It was the type of publicity that meant regular Joes saw a connection to him as aspirational. Even in his own casinos, where the house never loses, punters treated him as a talisman of good luck.”
He said Trump was already becoming a brand unto himself.
“When we studied the surveys, however, we found that nothing about the casinos themselves or the entertainment or the restaurants or the planes explained their attraction. Their unique selling proposition was Trump himself. That said to me that he had — and indeed has — a unique appeal,” Schoen said.
On the negative, Schoen learned firsthand about Trump’s notorious reputation as a cheapskate — after having to chase him down to collect an overdue $80,000 consultant fee.
“Typically, as we now know, Trump did not pay me for the poll,” Schoen said.
Trump only paid up when Schoen said he showed up announced to his office in Trump Tower, and the mogul agreed to write an $80,000 check.
When Trump initially demurred, Schoen recalled saying, “But, Donald, I only need one check.’ Without fuss, he said, `That’s OK.’ He wrote out a check and handed it to me, and I went straight out to the bank.”
He said he was “impressed” that Trump addressed the matter and “appreciated my chutzpah.”
“The encounter did not generate any ill-will at all,” said Schoen.
Trump announced his third bid for the White House in a potential 2024 rematch against President Biden.
