Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 8

Candice Bergen Recalls 2 Past Dates With Trump and Kissinger on Ted Danson Podcast

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 8

Candice Bergen Recalls 2 Past Dates With Trump and Kissinger on Ted Danson Podcast

Q: Beyond dating the same actress, what surprising foreign policy views did Trump and Kissinger share?

They shared an unexpectedly similar realist, transactional view of foreign policy: both were notably skeptical of multilateral institutions and traditional alliances, and both tended to judge them by whether they served U.S. interests. Analysts cited in the background material, including historian Thomas A. Schwartz, argue that Kissinger was never deeply committed to the idealism of multilateral bodies, even if he expressed that view more subtly than Trump. Trump’s “America First” approach was more blunt, but it reflected a comparable distrust of international frameworks and a preference for bilateral leverage. They also showed a similar coolness toward European unity and alliance politics. Kissinger, working in the Nixon era, viewed Europe through a hard-nosed balance-of-power lens, while Trump openly criticized NATO allies as free-riders and treated alliance commitments in more transactional terms. In both cases, alliances were seen less as values-based partnerships than as instruments to advance national advantage. More broadly, both men were associated with a foreign-policy style that put strategic interest ahead of moral rhetoric. Kissinger’s Realpolitik is the classic example; Trump’s approach, though very different in tone, often reflected the same instinct to prioritize power, bargaining position and domestic advantage over abstract international consensus.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 8

80-year-old Candice Bergen told Ted Danson’s podcast she went on a “very short” date with Donald Trump and later found Henry Kissinger the better companion.
Bergen said Trump arrived in a maroon limousine wearing a matching suit, vest and patent-leather boots, and Danson noted she had previously summed up the outing by saying she was “home by nine.”
Her account largely echoed earlier interviews: in 2018 she told Stephen Colbert she was about 18 and a University of Pennsylvania student when she met Trump on a blind date.
Bergen said Kissinger, whom she met through her parents, was “lovely,” “beyond smart” and had great manners, reinforcing her earlier verdict that he was the better date.