Politics

Some Say This Tape Proves Donald Trump Tried to Catfish Reporters

May 13th 2016

In an already weird election, with twists and turns and Trump, things just got a little weirder.

The Washington Post unearthed a 1991 recording from a People Magazine reporter speaking with a "John Miller," Trump's spokesperson, for a story on Trump's divorce from his first wife, Ivana.

Here's the twist: It turns out that John Miller was probably Trump the entire time.

The voice isn't as as deep, but the recording was made over 20 years ago. Other than that, it's all Trump — the cadence, the speech pattern, the favorite filler words "you know" and favorite adjective "tremendously" — and most of all, the bragging. Oh God, the bragging.

When the reporter, Sue Carswell asked "John Miller" about Trump's growing relationship with Marla Maples, who would become Trump's second wife, Miller said

"Well it's just that he decided that he wasn't, you know, he didn't want to make any commitment. He didn't want to make a commitment. He really thought it was too soon. He's coming out of a, you know, a marriage. And he's starting to do tremendously well financially."

And everybody loves Trump, according to "Miller." "He treats everybody well." When "Miller" goes on to tell Carswell that she doesn't know him, and Carswell interjects with, "No, I have met him," "Miller" says:

"Have you met him? He's a good guy and he's not going to hurt anybody. He is always going to treat [Marla Maples] well as he treated [Ivana] well. I mean, he paid [Ivana] a great deal of money. [...] He treated [Ivana] well and he treated — and he will treat Marla well. He's somebody that has a lot of options."

Donald Trump Ivana TrumpThe Washington Post - washingtonpost.com

Either "Miller" is Trump, or has a gigantic crush on him.

And it gets. So. Much. Better.

"Frankly, he gets called by everybody," "Miller" boasts, of Trump's prowess. "He gets called by everybody in the book, in terms of women."

"Like who?" Carswell asks.

"Miller" isn't quick to name names, so Carswell offers one — Carla Bruni, who at the time, was an actress/singer/model and not married to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Miller" plays it cool, but, and for the only time in the conversation, slips up and uses the first person:

"I think it's somebody that — you know, she's beautiful. I saw her once quickly and she's beautiful and all, but I think that he's got a whole open field, really."

He is really insistent that Trump isn't limited to just one woman, and he totally gets called by tons of famous and beautiful women, like, all the time. Even Madonna. But Trump doesn't care:

"...Actresses, people that you write about, just call to see if they can go out with him and things. [...] You know, Madonna called and what happened—I mean, I don't know if you want to listen to this. [...] Madonna was [at a ball Trump threw] and she came in a beautiful evening gown and combat boots. She was wearing combat boots. And Trump was asked to go over and meet her. [...] He's got zero interest in Madonna. [...] Well, she called and wanted to go out with him, that I can tell you."

Then, right in the middle of the Madonna rambling, "Miller" stops abruptly and says, "By the way, I'm sort of new here. [...] I'm sort of handling PR because he gets so much of it."

The interview weirdly predicts Trump's future.

When discussing how Trump gets bad press, "Miller" states:

"I've never seen somebody that's so immune, that he gets immune to, you know, some people would say he got bad press three or four months ago. [...] But I've never seen somebody so immune to—he actually thrived on the bad press initially."

Which is pretty much what Trump's been doing this entire election. No matter what outlandish thing he says or does, he seems to be immune — and now he's the presumptive republican nominee for president.

Trump denies that he is the voice on the tape.

On Friday, Trump went on The Today Show, and first, claimed not to know anything about the tape, which is Trump's classic move when he gets caught in a lie — feign ignorance:

"No, 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. I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and you can imagine that. This sounds like one of these scams, one of the many scams. It doesn't sound like me."

Trump's "I don't know anything about that" is classic Trump. He said the same thing about David Duke when he initially refused to disavow the KKK:

"Well, just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke. Okay? I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don't know. I don't know, did he endorse me or what's going on, because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists."

Then suddenly, Trump shifted from "not knowing anything" about the tape to straight up denying it was him:

"It was not me on the phone. And it doesn't sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that. It was not me on the phone. Let's go on to more current subjects."

"Oh, that’s Donald. What is he doing?"

After Cindy Adams, New York Post columnist and close friend of Trump since the early '70s heard the tape immediately after it was recorded, she told Carswell, "Oh, that’s Donald. What is he doing?" Carswell played the tape for Marla Maples, who also confirmed it was Trump's voice.

"I can’t believe he thought he’d get away with it," Carswell told The Post last week, surprised by Trump pretending to be his own publicist.

And here's another twist: "John Mitchell" wasn't the only spokesperson Trump had. Sometimes, a "John Barron" would handle Trump's PR.

Barron is the name of Trump's youngest son.

You can listen to the recording obtained by The Washington Post:

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