Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump denied reports Friday that he posed as his own publicist to brag about himself as far back as the 1970s.
According to The Washington Post, it was not unusual for reporters covering Trump's career in the 1970s, '80s and '90s to get calls from the business mogul masquerading as a publicist named "John Miller" or "John Barron."
In a 1991 recording obtained by the newspaper, a man who identified himself as Miller spoke with then-People magazine reporter Sue Carswell. He bragged about Trump's ability to stave off bad press and shared tales of Trump's meetings with models and celebrities with startling specificity and candor.
"Actresses, people that you write about, just call to see if they can go out with him and things," Miller told Carswell. He went on to talk about Trump meeting Madonna during a benefit.
"Somebody from Madonna's entourage came over and said, 'Would you go over and say hi to Madonna?'" Miller said. "And so he went over and said hello to Madonna and he gave his autograph to the dancers. She said, 'These are fans' and all this. 'Will you give them the autograph?' So he said, 'Best wishes' or something."
Carswell told The Washington Post Miller's voice sounded close enough to Trump's to raise her suspicions. She shared a recording of her interview with co-workers, who confirmed the voice was Trump's. She then called a close friend of Trump's, longtime New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who also confirmed it was Trump.
"This was so farcical, that he pretended to be his own publicist," Carswell told The Washington Post. "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."
Trump denied posing as his own publicist during an interview Friday morning on "The Today Show," saying that the voice didn't sound like him.
"I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and you can imagine that," he said. "This sounds like one of these scams, one of the many scams. It doesn't sound like me."
Later Friday, the Post said Trump cut off an interview with reporters after they asked whether he had employed anyone named John Miller in the past. The phone interview with Washington Post reporters was in its 44th minute when the line went dead.
"When the reporters called back and reached Trump's secretary, she said 'I hear you got disconnected. He can't take the call now. I don't know what happened,'" the Post reported.
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