# Pseudonyms used by Donald Trump

* This article is part of a series aboutDonald Trump
Business and personal
Business career
The Trump Organization
wealth
tax returns
Media career
The Apprentice
bibliography
filmography
Endorsements
Eponyms
Family
Foundation
American football
Golf
Honors
Public image
in popular culture
SNL parodies
handshakes
Legal affairs
Sexual misconduct allegations
Nicknames
pseudonyms
Racial views
Comments on John McCain
Conspiracy theories
Residences
Rhetoric
Security incidents
Trump dance
45th and 47th President of the United States Incumbent
Presidencies
first
second
timeline
Transitions
first
second
Inaugurations
first
second
Presidential library
Tenure
Executive actions
executive orders
proclamations
pardons
Trips
foreign
'17
'18
'19
'20–'21
Namaste Trump
North Korea summits
Singapore
Hanoi
DMZ
Riyadh summit
Helsinki summit
Shutdowns
January 2018
2018–2019
Polls
Legal affairs
Protests
federal law enforcement deployment
St. John's Church photo op
Social media
False or misleading statements
Killings
al-Baghdadi
Soleimani
Afghanistan withdrawal
Trumpism
TikTok controversy
Attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election
Fake electors plot
Chesebro memos
Eastman memos
Lawsuits
Texas v. Pennsylvania
Jeffrey Clark letter
Policies
Economy
tax cuts
tariffs
China trade war
farmer bailouts
Environment
Paris withdrawal
Foreign policy
America First
Saudi Arabia arms deal
Iran nuclear deal withdrawal
Jerusalem
Golan Heights
Palestine peace plan
Abraham Accords
USMCA
United States–Taliban deal
Immigration
travel ban
wall
family separation
migrant detentions
troop deployments
national emergency
Infrastructure
Social issues
First Step Act
cannabis
Space
Appointments (first  · second)
Cabinets
first
second
Ambassadors
first
second
Federal judges
first
second
Gorsuch
Kavanaugh
Barrett
Supreme Court candidates
Executives
first
second
U.S. Attorneys
first
second
Presidential campaigns
2000
primaries
2016
election
primaries
endorsements
rallies
Las Vegas incident
convention
debates
Make America Great Again
Never Trump movement
people
Access Hollywood tape
wiretapping allegations
Spygate
2020
election
primaries
endorsements
political
non-political
opposition
rallies
convention
debates
GOP reactions to election fraud claims
Trump–Raffensperger phone call
2024
election
primaries
endorsements
opposition
eligibility
Agenda 47
rallies
convention
debates
assassination attempts
PA
perpetrator
photographs
FL
suspect
Impeachments
Efforts
resolutions
First impeachment
Trump–Ukraine scandal
House inquiry
Senate trial
Second impeachment
Capitol attack
Senate trial
Proposed expungements
Civil and criminal prosecutions
2020 election federal indictment
Classified documents federal indictment
special counsel investigation
Plasmic Echo
FBI search of Mar-a-Lago
Trump v. United States
New York indictment
Stormy Daniels scandal
Karen McDougal affair
financial fraud
Georgia election indictment
Georgia election investigation
mug shot
COVID-19 pandemic
Taskforce
Communication
Government response
stimulus bills
CARES Act
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
Operation Warp Speed
White House outbreak
Interference with science agencies :
vte :
Donald Trump, an American businessman, politician, and the 45th and 47th president of the United States has used several pseudonyms, including "John Barron" (or "John Baron"), "John Miller" and "David Dennison". His practice of sometimes speaking to the media under the guise of a spokesperson has been described as "an open secret" at the Trump Organization and in New York media circles.

## Background

A writer for Fortune reported that Trump's father, Fred Trump, had used the pseudonym "Mr. Green" in business dealings.

## "John Barron" (1980s)

Trump used the pseudonym "John Barron" (sometimes "John Baron") throughout the 1980s, with its earliest known usage in 1980 and its last acknowledgment in 1990. According to The Washington Post, the name was a "go-to alias when [Trump] was under scrutiny, in need of a tough front man or otherwise wanting to convey a message without attaching his own name to it". Barron would be introduced as a spokesperson for Trump.
The pseudonym first appeared in a May 7, 1980, article where "John Barron, vice president of Trump Organization" spawned rumors of a $1 billion deal to buy the World Trade Center: "I don't know if it's going to happen or not, but it is a possibility." In a June 6, 1980, New York Times article, "Barron" defended Trump's controversial destruction of sculptures on the Bonwit Teller flagship store (now the site of Trump Tower) that he had promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The pseudonymous vice president acted as Trump's spokesperson for three days in that case. Trump continued to pose as "Barron" on occasion for the rest of the decade. In 1983, "Barron" told the press that Trump had decided not to purchase the Cleveland Indians.
In May 1984, "Barron" lied to then-Forbes reporter Jonathan Greenberg about Trump's wealth and assets to get Trump on the Forbes 400 list. "Barron" stated to Greenberg that "most of the assets [of Donald's father Fred Trump] have been consolidated to Mr. [Donald] Trump." In April 2018, Greenberg retrieved and made public the original audio recordings of his exchange with "Barron", and stated that "Trump, through this sockpuppet, was telling me he owned 'in excess of 90 percent'" of Fred Trump's assets. Ultimately, Greenberg included Trump at the end of the Forbes 400 list at $100 million, one fifth of the $500 million which "Barron" was claiming as Donald Trump's net worth. According to Greenberg, Donald Trump was only ever worth just under $5 million, which was 5% of the net worth which was attributed to him by Forbes at the time and only 1% of what "Barron" was claiming. Greenberg has corrected the record by stating that, as revealed in court documents in proceedings years later, Donald Trump never owned any of Fred Trump's assets until 1999 after Fred's death, and even then, inheriting only his share of Fred's deceased estate, with Donald Trump's three siblings and some grandchildren beneficiaries inheriting their corresponding shares.
Also in 1984, "Barron" gave the press a positive spin on the 1984 collapse of a plan to build Trump Castle in New York. In 1985, "Barron" urged fellow United States Football League team owners to partially reimburse Trump for a high-priced player. In April 1985, "John Baron, a vice president in the Trump Organization", announced to the press that the Trump Organization had signed an agreement to buy an unopened Hilton Hotel in Atlantic City.
Some New York editors recalled that "calls from Barron were at points so common that they became a recurring joke on the city desk".
Trump stopped using the pseudonym after he was compelled to testify in court proceedings that John Barron was one of his pseudonyms. The Washington Post suggested that Trump might have used the pseudonym longer if not for the "lawsuit in which he testified, under oath in 1990, that 'I believe on occasion I used that name.'"

## "John Miller" (1991)

In 1991, a reporter for People attempted to interview Trump about the end of his marriage to Ivana Trump and his rumored association with other women. She was called back by a publicist who gave his name as "John Miller", who gave her a long interview about Trump's marital affairs ("He's a good guy, and he's not going to hurt anybody. ... He treated his wife well and ... he will treat Marla well."), his attractiveness to women, and his wealth. The reporter thought at the time that "Miller" sounded remarkably like Trump, and played the tape to several people who knew Trump and agreed it was Trump. She says Trump later told her it was a "joke gone awry". Trump denied that he posed as John Miller to tell People, "[Madonna] called and wanted to go out with him, that I can tell you."
In 2016, The Washington Post obtained a copy of the tape and reported that it was Trump using a pseudonym. Trump denied it, saying, "It was not me on the phone." Later, when a reporter asked Trump if he had ever employed a spokesperson named John Miller, he hung up.

## "Carolin Gallego" (1992)

A 1992 letter to New York magazine signed by "Carolin Gallego" replied to an article by Julie Baumgold. The letter asserted that "as his secretary" she knew Trump to treat women with respect. This letter resurfaced in a 2017 article in the Washingtonian which highlighted similarities between patterns of repetition in Trump's speech and the final line in the letter, which read: "I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women—all women love Donald Trump." The Washingtonian was unable to find any record of a Carolin Gallego as secretary to Trump and said that it was not out of the question that Trump himself had written the letter.

## "David Dennison" (2016)

The name "David Dennison" was used as a pseudonym for Trump by his personal lawyer Michael Cohen in a 2016 pre-election non-disclosure agreement with pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels (born Stephanie Gregory Clifford and identified in the document as Peggy Peterson) regarding her allegation that she and Trump had an extramarital affair in 2006. Keith Davidson acted as Stormy Daniels' legal representative in that agreement. A later legal representative of Daniels, Michael Avenatti, later claimed that Davidson was a double agent all along working for Trump and Cohen.
The same pseudonyms were also later used in a similar 2016 pre-election agreement involving payment for the silence of Playboy Playmate model Shera Bechard about an alleged extramarital affair, with a consequent pregnancy and subsequent abortion, between "Dennison" and "Peterson". That agreement was also drafted by Trump's personal lawyer Cohen, while Bechard was also represented by the same Keith Davidson who had negotiated Stormy Daniels' agreement with Trump.
In Bechard's case, sources identified "Dennison" as Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who then acknowledged in an ambiguously worded statement that he had a "relationship" (the nature of which was not specified) and that he made the $1.6 million payment to her after being made aware of her pregnancy. The phrasing of his statement also omitted any assertion that he was in fact the father of the unborn child. Some legal scholars and columnists have since speculated that Donald Trump was really the person who had the affair with Bechard.

## In popular culture

In January 2021, after the permanent suspension of Trump's personal Twitter account, an account with the handle @barronjohn1946 was registered with the location “Not the White House” and including "Not Donald Trump" in the bio. The account is satirical, but as of September 2, 2021, it had amassed 419,800 followers and more than 1.9 million likes on its first tweet.
Cartoonist Ruben Bolling occasionally satirizes Trump's use of John Barron in comics titled Donald and John: A Boy and His Imaginary Publicist. It is drawn as a homage to the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, about a boy with a rich fantasy life.
In season 3, episode 5, of The Good Fight, which airs on Paramount+, a character places a fake call to The Wall Street Journal using the name John Barron. This is followed by a musical interlude written by Jonathan Coulton and animated by Steve Angel explaining Trump's use of the alias.
In Don Winslow's 2019 novel The Border, the Trump-like president is named "John Dennison".