Viral Clip of ‘John Barron’ Angrily Calling In to CSPAN Draws Wild Speculation On Whether it Was Trump Himself
The viral clip of “John Barron” making an angry call to CSPAN about the Supreme Court tariff ruling has some speculating that President Donald Trump was the one who actually dialed in.
The 32-second phone call Friday morning from “John in Virginia” — who called himself John Barron when brought on the air, and sounded quite a bit like Trump — has blown up on social media Sunday.
“Look, this is the worst decision you ever have in your life, practically,” the caller said. “And Jack’s gonna agree with me, right? But this is a terrible decision. And you have Hakeem Jeffries, who — he’s a dope! And you’ve have Chuck Schumer, who can’t cook a cheeseburger. Of course these people are happy! Of course these are people happy, but true Americans will not be happy. And you have the woman earlier — I assume she’s a woman, she’s a Democrat — but she’s … devastated by this.”
John Barron was the alias used by Trump to feed information to reporters in the 1980s and ’90s. That fact, plus the voice resembling the president’s, fooled some prominent critics into thinking it was actually Trump on the phone.
https://twitter.com/camkasky/status/2025673617237770538?s=20
Others leaned toward the call being a gag — but left open the possibility it was not:
But others recognized the whole thing was merely a bit:
And CSPAN officially debunked the wild theory.
“Because so many of you are talking about Friday’s C-SPAN caller who identified himself as “John Barron,” we want to put this to rest: it was not the president,” the network said in a statement posted to X. “The call came from a central Virginia phone number and came while the president was in a widely covered, in-person White-House meeting with the governors.”
Watch above, via CSPAN Networks.
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!
Comments
↓ Scroll down for comments ↓