As the race for the White House reaches fever pitch with election day less than two months away, Te Ao with Moana will tonight air a long-forgotten interview with the Republican nominee and former US President Donald Trump.
The interview, conducted by Te Ao with Moana reporter and producer Cameron Bennett in 2002, came more than a decade before Trump’s presidential dream became a reality.
Two years earlier, Trump had convened an exploratory committee to consider the possibility but ultimately did not pursue the idea.
The interview with Bennett, airing on tonight’s instalment of Te Ao with Moana, was originally filmed for TVNZ’s Sunday, covering the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.
It features Trump’s own account of how the day went - an account that has been widely disputed and is generally considered incorrect.
Nonetheless, it offers a fascinating insight from a prominent New Yorker in the year following the deadliest terror attack on American soil, discussing how the city rebuilt from the terror.
9/11 memories
Nearly a decade earlier, Trump had attempted to buy the central Auckland railway station in partnership with Ngāti Whātua Orakei, which he intended to convert into a casino.
In a 1993 interview with Paul Holmes, he praised Ngāti Whātua for its professionalism in business dealings.
“I mean we have a great proposal, we have a great partnership. The Maoris are going to be great beneficiaries because a lot of the profits are going to be going toward their education and health care and other things and I think it’s going to be a fantastic partnership.”
It marks the beginning of a three-week series by the Moana team, examining the 2024 presidential election, the cases for both Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, and the widespread ramifications the result could have across the world, including here in Aotearoa.
Neck-and-neck race
Harris was thrust into the spotlight in mid-July when Joe Biden, the then-presumptive nominee for the democratic ticket, became the first incumbent president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to withdraw from a reelection race, the first since the 19th century to withdraw after serving only one term, and the only one to withdraw after already winning the primaries.
In the six weeks since, she has mounted a campaign that saw her win the Democratic nomination and lead Trump in some polls while fighting neck-and-neck in others.
Trump, in the meantime, is enjoying his third nomination for the presidency, having won the 2016 and 2020 primaries but losing the 2020 election.
Cameron Bennett’s long-forgotten interview with Donald Trump airs on Te Ao with Moana tonight at 8pm on Whakaata Māori.