“I have great respect for President Obama,” Trump said in a February 2009 interview with CNBC’s “I Am,” according to a transcript published by BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I think that he sets the right tone, he’s an intelligent guy, it’s about time we have an intelligent guy in that office," he added.

“He’s an intelligent guy, you look at him, he knows."

The billionaire business mogul specifically complimented Obama's handling of the 2008 financial crisis.

“What they’re trying to do now is breaking new ground, so there’s a lot of trial and error, and we’ll see what happens. Honestly, it sounds good,” he said. “People think it’s good. You can go to me, you can go to great businessmen, they think it’s good, or some think it’s not good.”

Trump, who has been open about his previous support of Democrats, said government intervention was necessary during the crisis in order to prevent banks from failing.

“There are a lot of people that say we should do nothing,” he said. “I don’t agree with that, because I think every bank would be out of business, there would be a run on every single bank from the best bank to the worst bank, so I think you have to at least do something with the banks to show up the banks.”

Trump also revealed in the 2009 interview that his favorite foods are steak and pasta and his idea of fun is “sex.”