A man with a telltale style of speaking, identifying himself as John Barron, ripped the Supreme Court and congressional Democrats to shreds in a call to a live C-SPAN show.
But once Greta Brawner, the Washington Journal program host on the televised call-in C-SPAN program, seemed to recognize the caller’s voice, she looked like she wasn’t sure what she should do.
As Brawner looked into the camera on the live call-in show, she appeared stunned, speechless.
If it were actually President Trump on the line – C-SPAN later denied it was – it wouldn’t be the first time he has pulled such a prank.
When Trump was a Manhattan businessman, he used to occasionally call in to radio shows claiming to be John Barron.
Barron, of course, is the name of the president’s youngest child, so co-opting the name would fit his modus operandi.
John Barron was also the alias Trump used 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, according to Yahoo News.
Yahoo said the video clip “went viral.”
After “John Barron” called in to C-SPAN on Friday, an account on the social media platform “X,” headlined a post Sunday: “BREAKING: John Barron (Trump’s known past pseudonym) called into C-SPAN to complain about the Supreme Court’s tariff decision.”
The post by @Leading Report – which has 997,000 followers – had nearly 3 million views by Sunday night.
“John in Virginia, a Republican, let’s hear from you,” Brawner said as she took the call.
“Look, this is John Barron, you’ve got the worst (Supreme Court) decision you’ve ever had in your life. This is a terrible decision. You have Hakeem Jeffries – he’s a dope. And you have Chuck Schumer, who can’t cook a cheeseburger. Of course these people are happy. But true Americans will not be happy.”
At that point, Brawner apparently concluded she’d been had. She immediately cut off “Barron” and went to the next caller.
“X” users were either laughing or, in the case of a poster named “Senior,” not thinking the president should be joking around.
“If this is actually him this is one of the most unhinged uses of presidential time in recorded history,” Senior complained. “If it is not him someone deserves an award.”
Senior, aka @densa_ai, says in his profile he “cuts through the noise” and is “not a hateful person.”
Maybe he should have added “don’t have a sense of humor.”
Barron’s references were to U.S. House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries and U.S. Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York.
The reference to Schumer’s grilling skills reprises an old video meme poking fun at Schumer having trouble cooking hamburgers on a barbecue.
The meme showed Schumer putting a slice of cheese on a raw hamburger which had yet to cook on the grill. Critics had fun making fun of him for not knowing that you don’t put the cheese on the hamburger until it’s mostly cooked.
The meme also engendered even more laughs – or criticism – from Jews who follow kosher dietary laws that forbid mixing dairy and meat. (Schumer is Jewish.)
Judging from Brawner’s reaction to the apparent gag, she didn’t think any of this was kosher.
Trump or not, C-SPAN officials took the whole thing so seriously they put out a statement after the viral public reaction to the show denying the caller was Trump.
But whether it was or not, Brawner choked.
Just the simple fact that C-SPAN officials felt forced to put out an official statement makes the whole thing worthwhile.
Even just the C-SPAN statement on the X platform received millions of views itself.
