Cher always thought Donald Trump was an attention-seeking fool long before he became U.S. President, recalling the times she used to watch him look stupid in Aspen, Colorado.
The pop legend has become one of Trump's most vocal haters, often taking to social media to slam the American leader and his policies, but Cher admits her dislike for the former property tycoon began years before he took office.
"I had only heard about him when I lived in New York but I had a place in Aspen and we used go skiing there," she tells Billboard. "I met him a couple of times at a restaurant called Mezzaluna. He was always so starved for attention. Everyone in there was rich or famous, but he kept getting up to get salt or tomato sauce or to go to the bathroom.
"He made a tour around that restaurant three or four times. And I was thinking, 'Oh my God, do you see yourself or have any awareness about what everyone in this room is thinking?' It's like when he used to call up magazines pretending to be his own press agent. He's a con artist that had a TV show."
But Cher insists she'd dial down her hatred for Trump and back off her savage attacks if he started showing a little compassion or really stepped up his game amid the coronavirus crisis.
"As much as I dislike Trump - and dislike doesn't even come anywhere near to what I feel about him - if I thought that he was really interested in people and came up with something to help, I would give him some props, even though I think he would have nothing to do with it," she adds. "If his administration would start saving lives, I'd back off for a while."
