THURSDAY, JANUARY 25
When Donald Trump became President of the United States, I spoke to him on the phone and asked him for one favour – the first international TV interview of his Presidency.
‘Done!’ he replied.
I followed up with a formal request at the start of January 2017 and he replied with a handwritten note saying: ‘Piers, moving to DC, OK when I get settled in. Best, Donald.’
Three weeks later, just days after his inauguration, Trump suddenly invited me at the last minute to come to the White House to coincide with Theresa May’s visit.
Agonisingly, I was committed to filming episodes of Life Stories so couldn’t go. Sounds insane, I know, but they are big studio shows and I couldn’t let down the guests, their families and the audiences at such late notice.
After the show aired, I was deluged with more praise and insults than I’ve had for any interview. As with Trump himself, there was no middle ground
(Ironically, ITV once rejected Trump as a Life Stories guest on the grounds he wasn’t a big enough name for a British audience!)
Since then it’s been a tortuous waiting game as breaking news repeatedly wrecked new dates for the interview.
But Hope Hicks, White House communications director and Trump’s closest aide, assured me: ‘The President will keep his word to you.’
Last week Hope emailed: ‘OK. Davos. 20-minute interview, wide-ranging. First international broadcast interview, as promised.’
My joy lasted precisely 14 hours, until the US government suddenly plunged into shutdown.
‘Everything on hold,’ emailed Hope again on Sunday night. ‘Will know status of trip at 1am and update you first thing.’
So if you were wondering why I looked like a sleep-deprived zombie on Good Morning Britain last Monday, now you know.
There was no update when I woke but the shutdown ended that night and my producer, Winnie, texted: ‘From White House: we’re on.’
Today, at 5.30pm, President Trump walked into a small room at the World Economic Forum and kept his word.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26
GMB broke the first big news from the interview: Trump’s very rare apology, for retweeting racist group Britain First. It was a significant climbdown that swiftly led even BBC News.
A clip also aired of the President’s first words to me: ‘Man, I’ve missed you!’ This instantly sent Trump-haters into raptures of rage.
‘Anyone with a single working brain cell knows you have the integrity of a used-car salesman,’ raged Right Here Waiting singer Richard Marx. ‘You pathetic creep.’
‘Are you THE Richard Marx,’ I replied, ‘the guy who hasn’t had a hit this millennium?’
‘I’m THE Richard Marx who doesn’t need to defend his career,’ he fired back, ‘calling you out for being so far up Trump’s a**.’
There was an intestinal theme developing. I responded with a twist on his own lyrics: ‘Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you… to have another hit.’
Friends reacted to my big exclusive with mainly barbed praise. ‘Congratulations Tubs,’ tweeted Gary Lineker. ‘Will it also be the 1st international interview from inside the bowels of a US President?’ (Pretty rich coming from a man who once accidentally defecated on the pitch during an England match.)
‘Oh for f***’s sake, give it up sunshine,’ whined Lord Sugar – in between posting shameless tweets flogging his latest Apprentice winner Alana Spencer’s chocolates – as I rattled off promotional clips. ‘You’ve made your point. Is there something we need to do at 10pm on Sunday night? Kindly advise.’
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘turn on ITV and see how a real Apprentice host became the world’s most powerful man while his UK counterpart is reduced to flogging chocs on Twitter.’
It fell to James Corden to just be genuinely pleased for me: ‘Sensational work sir, truly!’ he emailed from backstage at the Grammys, which he was hosting.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27
I released more news lines from the interview, including Trump slamming Theresa May for not negotiating harder on Brexit, his possible U-turn on America pulling out of the Paris Accord on climate change, his surprising outrage at elephant trophy-hunting, and his wedding message to Harry and Meghan.
But it was his ‘I’m not a feminist’ admission that sparked most global attention.
Of course, all those spewing abuse about it would have been ten times as inflamed had he said: ‘I am a feminist.’
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28
After the show aired, I was deluged with more praise and insults than I’ve had for any inter view. As with Trump himself, there was no middle ground.
‘I’d rather douche with a hedgehog than listen to another second of this,’ seethed cake-show presenter Sue Perkins.
Lord Sugar was more impressed: ‘Very good coup and good interview – well done,’ he emailed.
Some news rivals such as Andrew Marr were gracious: ‘Through very gritted teeth, great scoop!’
Others, like John Simpson, the BBC’s loftily titled world affairs editor, less so. ‘The art of the political interview, Piers,’ he declared, as if he were journalism’s Picasso, ‘is to push your interviewee hard, not let them spout self-evident tosh. That’s just showbiz.’
‘The BBC led on revelations from the interview all Friday morning,’ I retorted, ‘so it would appear you’re the one spouting tosh, you pompous old prune.’
As to all those who cried ‘It was no Frost/Nixon, was it?’, I simply say that Frost (one of my heroes) paid Nixon, then unemployed, $600,000 to interview him for 28 hours.
I paid Trump, the current US President, nothing, and got just 28 minutes. (Contrary to this claim from Have I Got News For You: ‘Doctors confirm that after a gruelling six- hour operation, Piers Morgan has finally been retrieved from inside Donald Trump.’)
And hey, we both got a presidential apology!