Trump asked Bill what to expect from a presidential campaign. It’s a big challenge, the former president confided. Your life will be laid bare. But Bill stopped short of advising Trump on whether or not to run. By that point—a call to the former president—the decision had surely been made. Trump had spent years laying the groundwork—he’d aborted potential campaigns in 2000 and 2012, helped lead the “birther” effort to delegitimize Obama, and spent countless hours courting high-profile media types in the run-up to his launch.
