Trump on Trump: ‘He's a good guy'
But mogul denies posing as his own publicist in 1991
The man on the phone defending Donald Trump says he's a media spokesman named John Miller, but then he says, “I'm sort of new here,” and “I'm somebody that he knows and I think somebody that he trusts and likes” and even “I'm going to do this a little, part time, and then, yeah, go on with my life.”
A recording obtained by The Washington Post captures what New York reporters and editors who covered Trump experienced in the 1970s, '80s and '90s: calls from Trump's Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with “John Miller” or “John Barron” — public relations men who sound like Trump — who indeed are Trump, masquerading as a helpful and boastful advocate for himself, according to the journalists and several of Trump's top aides.
In 1991, Sue Carswell, a reporter at People magazine, called Trump's office seeking an interview with the developer.
She had just been assigned to cover the soap opera surrounding the end of Trump's 12-year marriage to Ivana, his budding relationship with model Marla Maples and his rumored affairs with any number of celebrities who regularly appeared on the gossip pages of the New York newspapers.
Within minutes, Carswell got a return call from Trump's publicist, a man named Miller, who jumped into a detailed explanation of why Trump dumped Maples for Italian model Carla Bruni. “He really didn't want to make a commitment,” Miller said. “He's coming out of a marriage, and he's starting to do tremendously well financially.”
Miller turned out to be a forthcoming source — a spokesman with insight into the private thoughts and feelings of his client.
“Have you met him?” Miller asked the reporter. “He's a good guy, and he's not going to hurt anybody. ... He treated his wife well and ... he will treat Marla well.”
Some reporters found the calls from Miller or Barron creepy; others thought they were just examples of Trump being playful.
Today, as the presumptive Republican nominee for president faces questions about his attitudes toward women, what stands out to some who received those calls is Trump's characterization of women who he portrayed as drawn to him sexually.
“Actresses,” Miller said in the call to Carswell, “just call to see if they can go out with him and things.” Madonna “wanted to go out with him.”
And Trump's alter ego boasted that in addition to living with Maples, Trump had “three other girlfriends.”
Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Hearing the tape for the first time in decades, Carswell said, “This was so farcical, that he pretended to be his own publicist. Here was this so-called billion-dollar real estate mogul, and he can't hire his own publicist. It also said something about the control he wanted to keep of the news cycle flowing with this story, and I can't believe he thought he'd get away with it.”
The Post obtained the recording from a source who asked to be identified only as a person with whom Carswell, now a reporter-researcher at Vanity Fair, shared the microcassette of the call shortly after the interview in 1991.
On NBC's “Today” show Friday, Trump denied being the voice on the phone. “I don't know anything about it,” he said.
But he owned up to it after Carswell's article was published, describing the Miller call as a “joke gone awry,” the Post said.
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