Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday denied posing as his own publicist in a 1991 phone call with a reporter, saying an audio recording of a man who identified himself as “John Miller” wasn’t him.
“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,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s “Today” program.
“I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice. … This sounds like one of [the] scams, one of the many scams. Doesn’t sound like me,” he said.
He had been played part of a recording of a man who identified himself as “John Miller” talking to a reporter.
“Well, I’m sort of handling PR because he gets so much of it,” the man says.
The Washington Post reported Friday on the phone call in a story that also said decades ago, reporters would get calls from Mr. Trump’s Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with “John Miller” or “John Barron” — PR men who sounded like Mr. Trump himself.
Mr. Trump’s youngest son is named Barron.
“I don’t think it was me. It doesn’t sound like me. I don’t know, even, what they’re talking about. [I] have no idea,” Mr. Trump said.
“It was not me on the phone. It was not me on the phone,” he said. “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, 25 years ago?” he said. “You’re going so low as to talk about something that took place 25 years ago about whether or not I made a phone call, I guess, you’re saying, under a presumed name.”
“The answer is no, and let’s get onto more current subjects,” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, I know it’s wonderful for your listeners, but I think we have more important things to discuss.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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