WASHINGTON — C-SPAN has dismissed rumors circulating online that President Trump allegedly phoned into the public service network last Friday using the alias “John Barron” to express his views on the Supreme Court.
On Sunday, C-SPAN clarified on X that the call actually originated from central Virginia. The network also highlighted that President Trump was engaged in a White House meeting at the time the call was made.
“Given the buzz around Friday’s C-SPAN caller identifying as ‘John Barron,’ we want to clear the air: it was not the president,” the network stated.
“The call was traced to a phone number in central Virginia and coincided with the president’s participation in a well-publicized, in-person meeting with governors at the White House,” C-SPAN elaborated. “For the real President Trump, be sure to watch the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night.”
During Trump’s first term, it emerged that back in the 1980s, he had used pseudonyms such as “John Barron” to call up journalists in attempts to influence certain narratives about him, particularly about his net worth.
Audio from those calls showed that “John Barron” sounded remarkably like Trump.
C-SPAN often fields calls from across the country and had been doing so on Friday to get reactions to the Supreme Court striking down Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs.
The caller in question, who claimed to be a Republican from Virginia, impersonated Trump’s working-class Queens accent, but with a slightly faster cadence.
“This is the worst decision you ever have in your life, practically,” the self-identified John Barron vented. “But this is a terrible decision.”
“And you have [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries, who — he’s a dope, and you have [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer, who can’t cook a cheeseburger. Of course, these people are happy. Of course, these people are happy, but true Americans will not be happy.”
C-SPAN host Greta Brawner quickly intervened and cut the caller off, switching to others.
The White House did not respond to a request to comment from The Post Sunday.
In real life, Trump unleashed on the Supreme Court Friday for scuttling his use of IEEPA tariffs, which had been the centerpiece of his protectionist agenda.
“They’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution,” a furious Trump said in the White House briefing room. “It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think. It’s a small movement.”
Trump has since moved to reimplement his baseline tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, bumping it up from its 10% rate to 15%. Under the law, those duties can remain for five months before having to be extended by Congress.
