John Melendez is a comedian who runs a podcast under the stage name “Stuttering John.” He was amazed that he managed to fool President Donald Trump into believing he was Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, as he has a strong Long Island accent and not a New Jersey accent. Melendez published the controversial conversation on his popular podcast, which clearly seems to contain a conversation with the voice of Trump. Melendez said that if they had even asked him which political party he belonged to, he would have been stumped, but luckily they didn’t.

To make things even funnier, reportedly the area code of Melendez' phone was in California.

‘Stuttering John’ Melendez phones the White House

Ironically Melendez has spoken to Trump many times in the past during his collaboration with fellow comedian and newsman, Howard Stern. This is why he was a little surprised that Trump did not recognise his voice. He has even dined with Trump and Melania in the past.

As reported by CNN, when the comedian tried to phone the White House just for fun, they hung up after saying Trump was busy. He called again, this time Melendez adopted a fake English accent and pretended to be Senator Menendez’ assistant while speaking to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Kushner asked him what topic he would like to discuss with his father-in-law.

He was then astounded to receive a call back on his cell phone from Donald Trump himself. Once he was connected to Air Force One, he switched to his normal, Long Island accent and went on to chat with the President for around four minutes.

The full conversation was uploaded to Melendez’ podcast for everyone to hear.

Among topics discussed, Trump brought up Senator Menendez’ 2017 acquittal in a well-documented bribery case. Menendez was reportedly accused of accepting bribes from an eye doctor in Florida in return for help with his political influence. The President went on to congratulate “Menendez” on the acquittal, saying the White House administration was proud of him and that he had gone through a very “tough” and unfair situation.

The comedian and the president then chatted about the current Supreme Court vacancy after Anthony Kennedy has chosen to stand down next month. Melendez asked Trump if he was going to go “more moderate” or “more conservative” in his choice. Trump went on to say he has a “big list” of people, saying he was going to look over it and make a decision within the “next couple of weeks.” Melendez then promised to “help” Trump, as long as he didn’t go “too conservative.” Trump said they would talk to him about it.

Although Melendez didn’t actually know Senator Menendez’ political leanings, Kirsten Powers of CNN said on the video below that Trump should have found it a “little off” that a Democrat would be willing to support him.

Comedian speaks to US President about the immigration controversy

With the real Melendez and Senator Menendez sharing Latin American surnames, "Stuttering John" then brought up the well-known controversy over illegal immigrant families being separated at the US/Mexico border with 2,000 children placed in a “care facility.” The comedian said his constituents were giving him a lot of “biz” about the situation and went on to congratulate Trump for trying to reunite the families. However, the comedian then asked what Trump was going to do moving forward, so he could reassure his constituents.

Trump went on to say he wants to take care of the situation, saying he would like to do the “larger solution” rather than the “smaller solution.” He said authorities were going through each case “step by step.” Not actually mentioning which party, Trump said how he and Menendez had a good relationship with the party and that he believes they can produce a really good immigration bill.

An official told CNN that President Trump’s channels are “open too widely,” admitting that mistakes like this do occur.

The real Senator Menendez speaks up

Ironically the real Senator Menendez is a long-term campaigner for immigration reform and told CNN he would welcome the opportunity to speak to the President, but that Trump had sabotaged any attempt to come up with a real immigration bill. When the White House administration called Menendez’s office about the conversation on Air Force One, staff was apparently “befuddled” and knew nothing of the alleged call.

Listen to the extracts from the prank call in the CNN video below. CNN's Jake Tapper closes out the segment by saying "Melendez 2020."
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