Atlantic Writers Spill on Butt Dials and Phone Calls From Trump: ‘Don’t Ask How We Got His Number’
Atlantic reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer spilled on how they recovered a derailed sit-down with President Donald Trump to land not one ,but two interviews with him in a bizarre saga that saw them get hold of his personal phone number and receive a 1.28 a.m. presidential “butt dial.”
According to their newly published piece, Parker and Scherer were initially lined up for a White House interview and photo shoot, which was set for either the Oval Office or the Lincoln Bedroom. But on the very week of their scheduled sit-down, Trump abruptly scrapped the meeting and blasted them on Truth Social.
On March 18, Trump took to social media to shred Parker, whom he called a “Radical Left Lunatic” and Scherer, whom he said “virtually always LIES.”
The writers explained that someone on Trump’s team – they aren’t sure who – apparently reminded him of some of their less-than-flattering past coverage of him. As a result, the photo op and interview were promptly scrapped. But Parker and Scherer weren’t about to let a canceled meeting stop them and set about getting a direct line to the president.
“Don’t ask how we got his number,” they teased in the article, adding only that “the White House staff have imperfect control over Trump’s personal communication devices.”
In the article, the reporters recount reaching Trump on his cellphone one Saturday morning in late March at 10.45 a.m. To their surprise, Trump answered.
“Who’s calling?” he asked as a television hummed in the background. He was reportedly at his Bedminster golf club and, after the pair had introduced themselves, was happy to talk to them.
“So we called his cell and he picked up and spoke at length,” Scherer explained on X Monday, shortly after the article dropped.
Scherer continued: “He called weeks later at 1:28 am.”
Parker, appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday, brought a little more light to the surreal sequence and shared how the president’s ominous call in the wee hours was accidental.
“I should just say it was two conversations and actually one late night, 1:28 A.M. butt dial from the president,” she told host Joe Scarborough.
After the “butt dial” the pair took another shot at requesting an in-person interview with Trump, as had been originally agreed, only to be denied by the president via an aide. Nine days later, however, Trump reached out to invite Parker and Scherer to the Oval Office on April 24, also requesting the presence of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Trump had branded Goldberg a “sleazebag” for his coverage of Signalgate, which saw Goldberg learn that the administration was planning high-stakes military plans on Signal after he was accidentally invited into a private chat room where ranking members of the administration were discussing military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
The three accepted the offer and the pair recently sat down with Trump for a second interview in the White House.
