You’d think being the US president would mean your calls are vetted thoroughly, but it appears all you had to do to speak to Donald Trump on the blower was pretend you were a certain UK TV presenter offering an olive branch.
Not only did some wag manage to get through to the former president pretending to be Piers Morgan, but Trump was on Air Force One at the time, which makes this unlikely tale even more impressive.
During an appearance on the BBC’s Americast podcast, Piers revealed his former friend fell victim to a hoax caller who pretended to be him.
According to the Good Morning Britain presenter, the prankster rang the then-president in October when he was on Air Force One. It only emerged that he’d been duped when Trump rang the real Piers out of the blue while on his way to vote in Florida.
The pair had fallen out over Piers criticising the former president’s handling of the pandemic.
The divisive presenter described the prank call as a “hilarious story,” adding: “Somebody had called him pretending to be me the day before and got through to him on Air Force One and they had a conversation with Trump thinking he was talking to me.”
The identity of the alleged prankster remains unknown. If Trump was duped, he would not be the first prominent figure to be fooled.
In March last year, the Duke of Sussex was reportedly tricked into speaking about his decision to quit the royal family by Russian hoaxers posing as activist Greta Thunberg.
Piers is a long-time acquaintance of Trump and in 2008 won a series of Celebrity Apprentice in the US, a show that was hosted by the businessman.
They had been friendly during Trump’s time in the White House before their fallout last year.
Piers said Trump was a “useless leader” because of his “character flaws – the chronic narcissism, the desire to make everything about himself”.