--- title: Donald Trump Denies Posing as Publicist in 1991 Phone Call description: Trump denied accusations that he used a pseudonym to pose as his own publicist in the early 90s. canonical: https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-13T17:17:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:03.176Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Denies Posing as Publicist in 1991 Phone Call og:description: "This sounds like one of the scams... doesn’t sound like me" og:url: https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f7d93a213602fc/698892dd428a9e205ecd297c/gettyimages-528776400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2750 og:image:height: 1547 og:image:alt: US-ELECTION-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Denies Posing as Publicist in 1991 Phone Call twitter:description: "This sounds like one of the scams... doesn’t sound like me" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f7d93a213602fc/698892dd428a9e205ecd297c/gettyimages-528776400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Denies Posing as His Own Publicist in 1991 Phone Call > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Paul Ryan Is Not Ready To Endorse Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Paul Ryan Is Not Ready To Endorse Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fZTS0mDm.m3u8) (0:55)  _Published 2016-05-05_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 13, 2016 5:17 PM UTC  US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the audience in Eugene, Oregon on May 6, 2016 US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the audience in Eugene, Oregon on May 6, 2016Rob Kerr—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 13, 2016 5:17 PM UTC Donald Trump on Friday denied a report that he has [“masqueraded himself”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-alter-ego-barron/2016/05/12/02ac99ec-16fe-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0%5Fstory.html) as his own spokesperson in the past, using fake names. In one particular 1991 phone conversation, the Washington _Post_ obtained audio of Sue Carswell, a reporter at _People_, speaking to a Trump publicist named “John Miller.” Miller, the _Post_ reports, is actually Trump. In the call, Miller sings Trump’s praises, speaking about “Donald’s” business endeavors and love life. The _Post_ also details [additional instances](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-alter-ego-barron/2016/05/12/02ac99ec-16fe-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0%5Fstory.html) of the billionaire allegedly using pseudonyms to represent himself in the press. The Republican presidential candidate was quick to deny the allegations when confronted about the report on NBC’s _Today_ show. “No, I don’t think it — 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,” he told _Today_‘s Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. “I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and then you can imagine that, and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn’t sound like me.” When pressed further, Trump stopped the conversation in full. “When was this, 25 years ago? Wow, 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…The answer is no, and let’s get on to more current subjects…I know it’s wonderful for your listeners, but I think we have more important things to discuss.” According to the _Post_, Trump testified during a 1990 court case that he had used “John Barron” [as a pseudonym in the past](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/21/the-amazing-story-of-donald-trumps-old-spokesman-john-barron-who-was-actually-donald-trump-himself/). “I believe on occasion I used that name,” Trump testified at the time, the paper reports. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Denies Posing as His Own Publicist in 1991 Phone Call","datePublished":"2016-05-13T17:17:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:03.176Z","description":"\"This sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn’t sound like me\"","url":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f7d93a213602fc/698892dd428a9e205ecd297c/gettyimages-528776400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f7d93a213602fc/698892dd428a9e205ecd297c/gettyimages-528776400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-ELECTION-TRUMP","caption":"US-ELECTION-TRUMP","creditText":"Rob Kerr—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/","name":"Donald Trump Denies Posing as His Own Publicist in 1991 Phone Call"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Paul Ryan Is Not Ready To Endorse Donald Trump","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fZTS0mDm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-05-05T23:18:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fZTS0mDm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/","duration":"PT55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4329561/donald-trump-john-miller-john-barron-publicist-1991-phone-call/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```