February 23, 2026, 10:18February 23, 2026, 10:18
This call raises eyebrows: During a live broadcast on the US broadcaster C-SPAN about the Supreme Court’s ruling against the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, a caller spoke up who used the pseudonym “John Barron”. He imitated Trump’s voice and speaking style in a deceptively realistic manner – which quickly caused a lot of speculation on the Internet.
In his post, the caller sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s decision. However, the moderator interrupted the conversation after a short time and continued the live broadcast without further comments.
However, a heated debate quickly broke out on the Internet about whether the US President himself was actually behind the call. In the 1980s and 1990s, Donald Trump famously used the pseudonym “John Barron” to provide targeted information to journalists.
The discussion on social media became increasingly heated: While some classified the caller as a prankster from the start, others recalled Trump’s previous use of this alias and considered it at least remarkable that this particular name was chosen.
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…
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 22, 2026
US broadcaster C-SPAN then released a statement to clarify the confusion. Accordingly, the caller was not Donald Trump. The call came from a phone number in central Virginia and came while the president was attending a face-to-face meeting with governors at the White House. (fake)