Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. AP FILE PHOTOS
NEW YORK, United States鈥揟hese days, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fire plenty of withering invective at each other in the battle for the White House.
But the billionaire tycoon, seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was once on good terms with the Clintons, newly released documents show.
A 450-page trove of records released on Tuesday by the Clinton Library shows Democratic frontrunner Hillary鈥檚 husband Bill 鈥� president between 1993 and 2001 鈥� knew Trump in the 1990s, when the current Republican frontrunner鈥檚 name came up in several White House memos.
One document from 1995 lists half a dozen White House receptions, dinners and other events to which the real estate mogul was invited.
In June 1996, Bill Clinton鈥檚 personal secretary Betty Currie sent an email to a White House staffer asking whether to mail Trump a letter congratulating him on his 50th birthday.
The letter was canceled three days later.
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Another draft letter to Trump was nixed in December 2000.
In June the same year, Clinton took part in a photo opportunity with Trump in his Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the president was due to attend a fundraiser.
The dump of documents also includes a copy of the title page from Trump鈥檚 book 鈥淭he Art of the Deal鈥� inscribed to White House aide Mark Middleton.
The Clinton Library released the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Buzzfeed.
Although they contain no startling revelations, the documents show the White House followed Trump鈥檚 activities in 1999 during the build-up to a presidential election the following year.
A memo intended to prepare Bill Clinton for a television interview advised how to answer questions about whether presidential campaigns by Trump or other celebrities would be 鈥渄emeaning鈥� to the White House.
鈥淲e go through all sorts of cycles in politics, and we鈥檙e in one now where some people from the entertainment world are talking about running for president,鈥� Clinton was advised to say.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a first, by the way. So it鈥檚 a free country, people can chart their own course, and the political process will sort out the wheat from the chaff.鈥�
Trump was exploring seeking the Reform Party鈥檚 nomination, but later abandoned his plan.
Now his campaign to lead the Republican ticket in November鈥檚 general election is transforming the political landscape, he is increasingly tangling with his potential opponent Hillary Clinton.
He has called the Democratic frontrunner a 鈥渢otal disaster鈥� among other things, she鈥檚 called him 鈥渄angerous.鈥�
But back in 2005, Trump invited the Clintons to attend his third wedding in Florida.
And even if the two presidential hopefuls have nothing nice to say about each other, their daughters Ivanka and Chelsea are still good friends by their own accounts.
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