Donald Trump pops up a lot in books from the 1980s and 1990s. At that time, he was a popular symbol for American success. Nowadays, of course, Trump is a far more polarizing figure. Apparently, Barack Obama once associated the current U.S. president with success as well.

In 1991, Obama, a 29-year-old soon-to-be Harvard Law School grad, wrote a paper with a friend, Robert Fisher, called “Race and Rights Rhetoric.” Obama summed up the average American’s mindset with the following sentence: "I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my children will."

This quote came to light following the publishing of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, a new 1,460-page biography of the former U.S. president by David J. Garrow. That law paper was previously unpublished.

Here’s the full excerpt:

As a Harvard Law Student, Barack Obama Said Becoming Donald Trump W...