A tape recorded in 1984 appears to show Donald Trump impersonating a Trump Organization official and lying about his wealth in order to get onto the Forbes 400 ranking of America’s wealthiest people. Posing as “John Barron”—an alter-ego name Trump frequently used with reporters—the now-president insisted he had almost complete control of his father’s real-estate empire and should be called a billionaire rather than a millionaire. In The Washington Post on Thursday, journalist Jonathan Greenberg wrote: “When I recently rediscovered and listened, for first time since that year, to the tapes I made of this and other phone calls, I was amazed that I didn’t see through the ruse: Although Trump altered some cadences and affected a slightly stronger New York accent, it was clearly him.” Greenberg suspected a lot of the assertions from “John Barron” were untrue, but said Forbes’ estimations of Trump’s wealth ($100m) proved to be well beyond what he actually had in the bank ($5m). Neither the White House or the Trump Organization responded to questions about the uncovered tape.
Read it at The Washington PostTrumpland
Uncovered Tape Shows Trump Lying to Get Onto Forbes 400 List
Impersonator
Recording from 1984 reveals Trump phoning journalist as his alter-ego “John Barron.”
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