Patton: Donald Trump Becomes A Ventriloquist

In 1991, Sue Carswell, a reporter for People magazine, called Donald Trump seeking an interview. A short time later, Carswell received a return call from "John Miller" who claimed to be Trump's publicist. The conversation was recorded, and a copy of a very revealing and extended conversation between Carswell and "John Miller" was recently obtained by the Washington Post. The tete-a-tete covered Trump's divorce from Ivana Trump, his affair with actress Marla Maples, and a budding relationship (at the time) with fashion model Carla Bruni, who later became the First Lady of France.

Carswell, as well as others, suspected that "John Miller" was really Donald Trump and, like a ventriloquist, Trump was speaking through Miller by pretending to be his press agent.

The first question we might ask is whether or not "John Miller" was really Donald Trump, trumpeting (so to speak) his exploits to advance his career.

"Carswell this week recalled that she immediately recognized something familiar in the Queens accent of Trump's new publicist. She thought, "It's so weird that Donald hired someone who sounds just like him.' After the 20-minute interview, she walked down the hall to play the tape to co-workers, who identified Trump's voice. Carswell then called Cindy Adams, the longtime New York Post columnist who had been close to Trump since the 1970s. Adams immediately identified the voice as Trump's." (Marc Fisher and Will Hobson, (Washington Post, 05/13/16).

Apparently, this "ventriloquist" call was not the first of the sort made by Trump. According to Fisher and Hobson, during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, New York reporters and editors received calls from Trump's Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with alleged publicists "John Miller" or "John Barron" (perhaps not coincidentally Trump named his son Barron).

What did alleged publicist John Miller have to say during the taped conversation? A lot of it had to do with Trump's sexual appeal to beautiful and famous women. (What a surprise.) "Actresses," Miller said in the call to Carswell, "just call to see if they can go out with him." And Trump's alter ego boasted that, in addition to living with Maples, Trump had 'three other girlfriends.'" (Fisher and Hobson, Washington Post, 05/13/16.)

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Ivana Trump told Barbara Walters that, following her separation from Trump, she would never reconcile with him. That rejection was apparently too much for Trump's ego to take. After all, he claims to be irresistible to women.

He had his ventriloquist dummy Miller explain it away: "What is she going to say? When he's with somebody else and had others lined up, is she going to say, 'Yes, I want to get back. . . I mean he's living with Marla Maples and he's got three other girl friends, and then. she's not going to say, I really want to get back, you know? She wants to get back , she's told it to a lot of her friends and she's told it to him, but it's highly unlikely.'" (Chris Cillizza, Washington Post, 05/16/2016).

All right, so here's a superficial conversation between Trump and a reporter. (Superficial conversation? What else? It is Trump, you know.) Exactly what relevance does this have to his capacity to serve as the President of the United States?

John Cassidy of The New Yorker (05/13/2016) writes, "As I've noted in previous posts, there is plenty of material in both Trump's personal life and his business career that bears inspection. He has successes to his name, including some trophy buildings and a collection of upscale golf resorts, but he is also a man who has built his career on hype and self-promotion, who has presided over numerous costly business failures, who has done business with mob-related figures and been sued many times, who has been married three times, and who has even clashed with members of his own family about providing medical coverage for a seriously ill young relation."

Sue Carswell, the reporter who had the recorded interview with Trump, summarizes her feelings this way: "It shows he's a liar right now. And that distresses me as the candidate running for the Republican Party, " Carswell said in an interview with ABC News' Mary Bruce. "If this is the kind of character that - of a man that you're going to be voting for come November, I would be suspicious if he tells lies. "I mean, he's punking me," Carswell said, He's punking the country." (ABC News, 05/14/2016).

John Oliver notes on his television program "Last Week Tonight: "That is so perfectly Donald Trump. Even his imaginary alter ego brags about himself."

Gary Patton is the author of two books, Selling Mt. Washington, a political satire, and Outtastatahs: Newcomers' Adventures in New Hampshire, a work of regional humor.