Oprah Winfrey has said she is not interested in taking on Donald Trump and running for US president and that she does not ‘have the DNA’ for it.
The talk show legend billionaire actress sparked speculation that she could be in line for the job following her rousing speech at the Golden Globes earlier in January, with many high profile stars backing her for the post.
But Winfrey, 63, has now said she has no desire to put herself forward as a Democratic candidate for the 2020 election.
This comes after a poll released just this week showed she would beat Trump, but that Democratic and liberal household names Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders would best the Republican by more.
Oprah says she won’t run for president, hasn’t got any interest and it isn’t in her DNA
The survey, conducted by SSRS and commissioned by CNN, found that Winfrey would best Trump among registered voters by nine points, with the talk show queen receiving 51 per cent and the sitting president getting 42 per cent.
She told InStyle: ‘I’ve always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not.
‘And so it’s not something that interests me. I don’t have the DNA for it.’
Referring to her best friend, CBS News anchor for This Morning Gayle King, Winfrey said: ‘Gayle – who knows me as well as I know myself practically – has been calling me regularly and texting me things, like a woman in the airport saying, ‘When’s Oprah going to run?’.
‘So Gayle sends me these things, and then she’ll go, ‘I know, I know, I know! It wouldn’t be good for you – it would be good for everyone else’.’
She added: ‘I met with someone the other day who said that they would help me with a campaign. That’s not for me.’
Winfrey made an impassioned call for ‘a brighter morning even in our darkest nights’ at the Golden Globes, prompting her peers and fans to call for her to run for office.
Among registered voters, new polling indicates that former Vice President Joe Biden would have the biggest edge against President Trump in a potential 2020 match-up, but the Republican would also be defeated by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Oprah Winfrey
As she became the first black woman to win the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Winfrey told the audience: ‘For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men, but their time is up.’
She added: ‘I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.’
Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks were among the stars who shared their backing for Winfrey.
Donald Trump said earlier this month that he would ‘beat Oprah’ if she ran against him at the next election.