A long-lost unused interview with Donald Trump has been unearthed from the TVNZ archives for the first time.
The interview was filmed at Trump Tower in 2002 for a story TVNZ's Sunday programme was doing on the first anniversary of 9/11.
Journalist Cameron Bennett came to New York for an interview with the then-real estate mogul.
In the interview, Trump said he was "very much involved in New York".
"I know what people deal with, I have thousands and thousands of construction workers that work for me. I've never seen spirit like there is today."
Trump said he believed 9/11 was "really an attack on the free world" rather than just New York.
"We took the hit for everybody else."
Amazingly, the golf-loving tycoon never made it to air.
Bennett said it seemed incredible now that they didn't given who he went on to become.
"He didn't make the cut in our story because we had more gritty real stories from other people who had been through the whole 9/11 experience."
Bennett said he was "thrilled" that the interview had come to light.
"Particularly because he's at this most consequential of presidential elections, and with him being one of the most consequential people in the world."
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