In a hilarious yet troubling turn of events on Friday, comedian and host of The Stuttering John Podcast John Melendez was allegedly able to prank call Donald Trump on Air Force One. During his show, Melendez — who started out on Howard Stern’s radio show — called into the White House switchboard and claimed to be the assistant Sean Moore (“S-E-A-N as in Sean Connery” and “Moore as in Roger Moore”) for New Jersey Senator Bob Menedez.
After speaking to a switchboard operator at the White House and lying as to why he had a California phone number (he claimed to be on vacation), he was called back by Jared Kushner from Air Force One and then connected to Trump. Trump congratulates him and tells him that he “went through a very tough situation.”
Over the course of the next couple of minutes, Trump shared some thoughts on immigration, saying “Bob, let me just tell you I want to be able to take care of the situation every bit as much as anybody else at the top level. I’d rather do the larger solution rather than the smaller solution.” He also mentioned his process for replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy before they ended the call: “I have a list of people, I have a big list of people, Bob, and we’ll take a look at it and we’re gonna make a decision. I’ll probably make it over the next couple of weeks.”
Later on Friday, the story got even weirder with Melendez claiming via livetweet that the Secret Service visited his home and that he moved to an undisclosed location.
Secret Service at my door. I guess my old friend Donald wants to continue this. Stay tuned.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
Sectret service about to arrest me. Unbelievable! They should arrest Jared Kushner for putting the call through, shame on Donald Trump who has been a friend of mine for years.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
Secret Servive is knocking. Unbelievable.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
I’m
Not answering the door.— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
Alright, I didn’t answer & they have left, but my neighbors said they showed their badges.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/stutteringjohnm/status/1012933376259469312
I made a living at pretending I’m a reporter, which Donald trump knows, & was a fan of, why would he have me arrested for duping him.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
I’m currently an at undisclosed location. Sorry, love you all but I have to go to sleep. Red, can I get a rock hammer?
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
To be fair, this could definitely all be an elaborate prank with impersonators and storytelling, so we’ll have to wait and see in the coming days as more details emerge.
(Via Boing Boing, The Hill)