Monday morning, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” resurrected an audio clip circulated last year.
The clip, nearly 20 years old, is of a phone exchange between a reporter from People Magazine and a press flack for Donald Trump claiming to be “John Miller.” One might think, while listening to the clip, that the voice of John Miller sounds awfully similar to Trump’s.
Trump claimed the voice isn’t his: “No, it doesn’t sound like my voice at all. I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice, and you can imagine that, and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams.”
It doesn’t take more than a few seconds of listening to the clip, however, to realize that the Trump P.R. guy is certainly Donald Trump himself. Who better to talk about Donald Trump…than Donald Trump?
Here are 3 characteristics that have made Trump’s voice and speaking style iconic (and therefore unmistakable), but have also outed him as “John Miller.”
1. Tremendous
Donald Trump is to “tremendous” like a fat boy is to cake. He loves that word. Trump has used this word so much in the past 20 years, it’s amazing Merriam-Webster hasn’t rebranded it. Dead give-away that this isn’t “John Miller.”
2. Simple Language
Trump isn’t one for complicated words or sentence structure, and neither is “John Miller” apparently. In addition to the simple sentence structure and vocabulary Trump uses in this audio, he also outs himself by exaggerating. Phrases like “so highly unlikely,” and “very beautiful girl,” and “having a very big thing with Mick Jagger” pepper the phone conversation.
Not heard in the audio recording? “Bigly” or “big league” or whatever he means to say.
3. Bragging
A conversation with Donald Trump isn’t over until you’ve heard several ways in which he is the best, brightest and most talented. Which leaves little doubt about who is speaking. No one would be surprised to hear him say, “Trump’s real-estate biz is better than anyone else around, he treats his ex-wife and lovers very well, actresses call him up all the time to hang out, Madonna is into him but he’s not into her.”
None of this is new information. It just helps us conclude that John Miller is Donald Trump and Donald Trump is John Miller. I guess if you want something done right, you do it yourself…
Beverly Hallberg (@BevHallberg) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is president of District Media Group.
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