I cannot say if the quote is real but I know one thing for certain. One of his dear friends was Senator Al D’Amato so seeing someone like Trump as a friend was not outlandish.
Trump has had Washington insider connections long before 2016. Pat Nixon happened to watch Trump as a guest on Phil Donohue. She later remarked to President Nixon “If Donald Trump ever decides to run for president, he will win!”.
Trump later became a penpal with Richard Nixon from the mid 1980s and about seven years after that.