In the 1970s-1990s, reporters covering Trump would sometimes chat on the phone with Trump's PR men John Barron or John Miller. Turns out, Barron and Miller were Trump himself. It'd be funny if, well, y'know… From the Washington Post's great article by Marc Fisher and Will Hobson about this weirdness:
"Actresses," Miller said in the (1991) call to (People reporter Sue) Carswell, "just call to see if they can go out with him and things." Madonna "wanted to go out with him." And Trump's alter ego boasted that in addition to living with (model Marla) Maples, Trump had "three other girlfriends."
Miller was consistent about referring to Trump as "he," but at one point, when asked how important (model Carla) Bruni was in Trump's busy love life, the spokesman said, "I think it's somebody that — you know, she's beautiful. I saw her once, quickly, and beautiful . . . " and then he quickly pivoted back into talking about Trump — then a 44-year-old father of three — in the third person.
In 1990, Trump testified in a court case that "I believe on occasion I used that name." He did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
In a phone call to NBC's "Today" program Friday morning, Trump denied that he was John Miller. "No, I don't think it — I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time and it doesn't sound like my voice at all," he said. "I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and then you can imagine that, and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn't sound like me." Later, he was more definitive: "It was not me on the phone. And it doesn't sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that, and it was not me on the phone. And when was this? Twenty-five years ago?"
Trump has never been terribly adamant about denying that he often made calls to reporters posing as someone else. From his earliest years in business, he occasionally called reporters using the name "John Barron."
