People think Trump called a news station under a pseudonym to defend tariffs – here's what really happened

People think Donald Trump called into a live news broadcast to defend his tariffs under a pseudonym.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s widespread use of “reciprocal tariffs”, first initiated in April 2025, was illegal in a major blow to the US president. In response, Trump called the justices “fools and lapdogs”, and instituted a global tariff of 15 per cent on Saturday (21 February), upped from the initial 10 per cent announced the previous day.

On Friday, a caller using the name “John Barron” called into a C-SPAN news broadcast in order to criticise the Supreme Court ruling, calling it a “terrible decision”.

But, it didn’t take people long to point out that the voice sounded suspiciously like Trump’s own, and that “John Barron” is an alias he is known to have used before.

The caller even employed Trump’s style of speaking by segueing off to insult critics, saying, “And you have Hakeem Jeffries, he’s a dope, and you have 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.”

The person was cut-off mid-call by the host Greta Brawner. Footage of the moment went viral online and sent rumours flying that it was Trump himself calling in.

Someone argued: “I WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED.”

One person claimed: “It’s Trump, he likes to play games.”

Another wrote: “Either an impersonator having fun or a very strange coincidence.”

“It’s not Trump but nonetheless still a fantastic call lol,” one person suggested.

C-SPAN itself has since put the rumours to bed, confirming that the call was taken while Trump was otherwise engaged.

“Because so many of you are talking about Friday’s C-SPAN caller who identified himself as ‘John Barron,’ we want to put this to rest: it was not the president.

“The call came from a central Virginia phone number and came while the president was in a widely covered, in-person White House meeting with the governors.”

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