Singer-songwriter Carly Simon, best known for the 1972 hit single “You’re So Vain,” has described an awkward encounter with Donald Trump , in a Thursday interview with The Guardian . In the interview, Simon describes how and why she once spurned an invitation from Trump to visit his Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago resort.
In addition to her career as a music star with two Grammy Awards and 24 top-100 hit singles, Simon was born into a prominent New York family. She is the daughter of Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing house. As a result, Simon has long socialized with the wealthy and famous, even becoming close friends with Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis.
It was not unusual, therefore, that Simon received an invitation to a New York luncheon to honor Benazir Bhutto, the pioneering prime minister of Pakistan, who would be assassinated in 2007. In her Guardian interview, Simon does not specify exactly when the luncheon took place. But the “Anticipation” singer notes that there was one fellow guest who initially appeared to completely ignore her — Donald Trump.
“Trump wasn’t paying any attention to me at all. Why would he?” Simon told the paper, noting that Trump was surrounded by several “New York dignitaries.” But when Bhutto herself spoke to Simon, Trump’s attitude changed dramatically.
Simon said that Bhutto summoned her into the bedroom of the apartment where the luncheon was being held. Once the two were alone, Bhutto — the first woman to lead a Muslim country — told Simon how much she enjoyed her music, even naming specific songs that were her favorites.
“When I went out of the bedroom, obviously I had all of a sudden become important through the eyes of Donald Trump. So he was very anxious to meet me and invited me to Mar-a-Lago,” Simon told The Guardian .
Trump was “all over me like ugly on an ape,” Simon told the paper. But she spurned Trump’s invite to his Palm Beach estate because “I thought he was kind of repulsive.”
Simon continues to hold a low opinion of Trump, even reworking her signature hit, “You’re So Vain,” into an attack on Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, as HuffPost reported.
While the original 1972 release contains the line, “your scarf, it was apricot,” in the anti-Trump version, Simon sings, “your face, it was apricot.”
“He is so vain, that’s for sure, and not in the best possible way. He doesn’t bring humor to the word,” Simon told The Guardian , referring to Trump. “In the song, hopefully, the person could wink at himself in the mirror because he got the joke.”