Donald Trump Says Bill Belichick Once Kissed Him And Said "I Love You"

Mark Leibovich reminisced about a time he spoke to Donald Trump “in the fall of 2015” for a profile, and shared some of the incumbent president’s stories in a . There is one particularly fishy anecdote involving Patriots coach Bill Belichick and smooching.

If Trump is to be believed—haha—the reference to “last year” would make this game during the Patriots’ 2014 season.

By far the best deal Kraft ever made was hiring Belichick, Trump said. Who, by the way, is also “a great, great friend” of Trump’s, even though everyone just assumes he’s “a really rough guy.”

“So I go to the Patriots game last year,” Trump said. “I’m on the sidelines with Kraft. He’s got Les Moonves right here. He’s got a lot of different people. And Belichick comes over in his Patriots sweatshirt and the hoodie and the whole thing. He hugs me, and he kisses me, and he said: ‘I love you. You’re the greatest.’” Trump sat at his cluttered desk and seemed almost dreamy at the memory, as if the reception from Belichick genuinely moved him. “He just feels warmly toward me, Belichick does,” Trump said. “Isn’t that the craziest thing?”

For what it’s worth, there are no 2014 sideline shots of Trump on Getty Images or the Associated Press, and no contemporary reports putting him at a game that season. The closest one is a Jets-Patriots game in Foxboro on Oct. 21, 2012:

The story’s most likely bullshit, but the image it evokes will scar forever.

[ NYT Mag]