
Comedian John Melendez best known as “Stuttering John,” who appeared on Howard Stern until 2004, said Thursday he “Prank Called,” the President, Donald Trump. He released the call during a pod cast.
Melendez on twitter said
I find it astounding that the news media's not picking up the fact that I totally duped the President & got in touch within in less than 2 hours while he was on Air Force One. Shame on, NBC/, CNN & Huffington Post. I gave them a news story on their laps.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 29, 2018
During the pod cast, Melendez calls the White House as himself, is told the President is not available he then asks for Melania Trump and the operator disconnects the line. This happens around the 34:00 minute mark of the full pod cast.
At the 37:00 minute mark Melendez calls back pretending to be Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez’s (D-NJ) assistant, Shawn Moore, and tells the operator that Menendez needs to speak with President Trump urgently about a bill that needs passed.
The operator appears to have routed the call to President Trump’s assistant while President Trump was speaking in Fargo, North Dakota. The assistant explains that President Trump is speaking and could he please call him back.
At the 47:00 minute mark Melendez gets a call back from the White House operator to verify the phone number.
At the 59:00 minute mark Melendez explains that he was in the car when he gets a call from Jared Kushner who is calling from Air Force one.
The Call 3:50
Before the call is played Melendez explains that it took 3 tries before Kushner called to arrange the President calling him back.
The call starts with President Trump congratulating “Menendez,” on what the President calls a “tough, tough situation, and I don’t think a very fair situation, but congratulations.”
They speak about the border crisis and the separation of kids and their parents, saying, “I wanna be able to take care of the situation, every bit as much as everybody else at the top level.”
They move on to speak about the Supreme Court Justice nominee, to replace Justice Kennedy, “Well, I haven’t looked–I have a list of people, I have a big list of people,” the President adds, he’ll have an name in about twelve or fourteen days.
Here's the full transcript of Trump's phone call with prankster Stuttering John. He appears to think he's speaking with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ):https://t.co/PjM9SClgmV pic.twitter.com/bRFlgLPB6J
— Melanie Schmitz (@MelsLien) June 29, 2018
Melendez appeared on CNN on Friday and said, “I am shocked … I mean we did this as a goof, I’m a comedian. I just could not believe that it took us an hour and a half to get Jared Kushner and Donald Trump on the phone from Air Force One.”
He goes on to tell CNN that he has spoken to President Trump over the years, even though it’s been maybe six or eight years since they have spoken, he was very surprised President Trump did not recognize it was him and not Senator Menendez.
Also on Friday Melendez took to twitter and explained that the Secret Service had arrived at his home
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
He issues several tweets that are similar one stating he has left his home for an undisclosed location.
On Saturday he once again tweet that all was well.
I have not been arrested yet & have returned home. My legal team says that I'll be okay.
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
The full podcast (the call happens around 1:10 (ish mark)
Warning this is an explicit podcast containing adult material.
(I incorrectly spelled Senator Menendez’s name. Thanks PW for bringing the error to my attention.)