Chatelaine's eerily accurate takes on Trump and Clinton — from 25 years ago

The long and ugly American election campaign has likely produced more tweets, hot takes and long-reads than all previous elections combined. But as these two stories from the Chatelaine archives prove, the narratives that have surrounded the polarizing personalities of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have roots that go way, way back.

April 1988: "Trump erects wordy monument to his ego" From a review of Trump's book, The Art of the Deal

"Because the modesty of Manhattan real-estate tycoon Donald Trump is reminiscent of Mussolini's megalomania, his autobiography, The Art of the Deal (Random House), is a litany of self-congratulation. For instance, when Trump finds just the right rare marble for Trump Tower, the ugliest tourist attraction in New York City, he accepts only the best slabs. "The rest we just scrapped — maybe 60 percent of the total," he writes, expecting our approval.

Trump tours his childhood (his father was a builder), his marriage to Czechoslovak model Ivana (she runs his casino in Atlantic City) and his endless skirmishes with New York mayor Ed Koch. By his own account, Trump is neither incompetent nor corrupt — he's a crowing capitalist straight out of the novels of Ayn Rand."

October 1992: Why pillory Hillary?  
From an Editor's letter written by Mildred Istona

"Astonishing, isn't it? It's 1992 but we're still ambivalent about a woman's place. And the controversy about the proper role of a First Lady is only one lightning rod in the continuing debate.

Traditionally, American First Ladies, like prime minister's wives, have been adoring and apolitical. They make good small talk, stake out a worthy cause but keep their noses out of their husbands' politics. . . .

Of course it was inevitable that the evolving role of political spouse would catch up to the reality of the two-career family. Enter Hillary Clinton, 44, wife, mother and high-powered corporate lawyer, who earned almost five times Bill Clinton's governor's salary of $35,000 in 1991. The Clintons, if he's elected president in November, will become the first two-career couple in White House history, a prospect that scares a large segment of the voting public, which resists the idea of a First Lady engaged in the affairs of state. Hillary couldn't seem to please anyone. Feminists complained she wasn't independent enough. Traditionalists wanted her to be more deferential. . . .

If we allow Barbara Bush, a college dropout and full-time homemaker, to be Barbara Bush, why can't we let Hillary be Hillary — one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the U.S.? . . . Why is an assertive career woman so threatening?"

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