During the 2007 Democratic presidential primary, Donald Trump spoke favorably of Hillary Clinton, telling Wolf Blitzer that he thought she would win the nomination "rather easily."
"I know her very well," Trump said. "She's very talented. And she has a husband that I also like very much. I think she's going to get the nomination rather easily."
Trump added later in the interview that he thinks Hillary Clinton is "very, very capable."
Trump was also asked about Clinton's 2007 health care proposal, at the center of which was an "individual mandate" similar to the one President Obama would later include in his plan.
"I think it was very good. I think she came out with an idea. It's a very, very complex set of things going on right now in terms of healthcare. But she came out with an idea, it sounds like a pretty good idea, and a lot of people like it and embraced it. And she learned a lot from her previous encounter," Trump said.
Trump, who announced Tuesday he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, has also given large sums of money to the Clinton Foundation. His name is listed on the Clinton Foundation's website as having donated between $100,000 and $250,000.
As noted by Bloomberg Politics, Hillary Clinton also had a front row seat at Trump's 2005 wedding and Bill, unable to go to wedding, attended a black-tie reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Trump and his son Donald Jr. also donated to Clinton's campaigns in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Here's a video clip from the interview:
View this video on YouTube
And here's the full transcript.