Oprah Winfrey made a splash yesterday in a segment on David Rubenstein’s Bloomberg show when she indicated that Donald Trump’s presidency—and his lack of governing experience—had made her reconsider her own potential bid for the White House. When asked whether she’d ever thought about running for president, the talk show icon said: “I never considered the question, even a possibility. I thought oh, gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough. Now I’m thinking, ‘Oh. Oh!'”
That’s as good a reason as any to examine Oprah’s public political past. It’s surprisingly brief and is summarized quite nicely in an episode of the NPR podcast Making Oprah that launched last fall. For the first half of her talk show’s 25-year run that ended in 2011, Winfrey avoided interviewing politicians. It wasn’t until 2000 that she tip-toed into presidential politics, featuring both candidates—Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush—on her show. Bush’s appearance, during which he planted a big kiss on Winfrey’s cheek, is credited with giving the future president a late boost in the polls.
But even then, Winfrey remained agnostic. She finally revealed her political leaning in 2004 after hearing then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. She became an early evangelist of his—”I remember feeling this man will be president,” she recalls. But her public endorsement prompted some backlash among viewers. “I went, ‘Oh yeah, that’s right, up until this point, I’ve never said if I was a Republican or Democrat,'” she says.
Winfrey didn’t stump for a candidate in last year’s presidential race. In explaining her relative silence in August, she said, “I haven’t felt that my voice would actually make a difference.”
Despite her comments to Rubenstein, Winfrey fans shouldn’t get too excited about her presidential prospects. Later in the interview when Rubenstein referenced her considering a run, Winfrey demurred, “No, that won’t be happening.” Though it should be noted that when Trump appeared on Winfrey’s show in 1988, and she asked him whether he’d ever run for president, he gave a similar answer: “Probably not. I don’t really think I have the inclination to do it.”