Czechoslovakia secret police file on Ivana says Trump felt he could win presidency in 1996

Nearly 30 years ago, Donald Trump was confident he would win the U.S. presidential election — as an independent in 1996, according to recently uncovered files from Czechoslovakia’s Communist-era secret police.

Czechoslovakia was the home nation of Trump’s first wife, Ivana, a model, athlete and businesswoman who became the mother of his three oldest children: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.

A year before the 1989 collapse of communism in many parts of Europe, details about Ivana Trump’s 1988 visit back to her homeland were recorded in a classified police report. The Oct. 22, 1988, report claimed that Trump refused to run for president in 1988 — despite alleged pressure to do so — because he felt, at 42, he was too young. But the secret report said he intended to run in the 1996 U.S. presidential race as an independent, when he would be 50.