Trump told a prank caller when he’ll pick his SCOTUS replacement

In a stunt that was both hilarious and horrifying, “Stuttering John” Melendez, Howard Stern’s famous sidekick, got President Donald Trump on the phone on Air Force One (July 13, 2018) by pretending to be Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

How did he do it? Amazingly, Melendez talked to two different White House operators and got through screening until Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, called him back. Kushner asked Melendez if he wanted to talk to Trump right away or have him call him back, which is what Melendez preferred. The White House operator later called Melendez, asking if it was the senator and then transferred the call to Air Force One.

Here’s what they talked about:

When Trump picked up the phone, he congratulated who he thought was Menendez, who survived a recent ethics scandal, telling him that he “went through a very tough situation.”
They also discussed the immigration situation with Trump telling Melendez: “Bob, let me just tell you I want to be able to take care of the situation every bit as much as anybody else at the top level. I’d rather do the larger solution rather than the smaller solution.”
And Trump told Melendez that he would make a pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in 12 to 14 days.

The prank call is certainly amusing, but also raises serious questions about White House security when you consider that someone with nefarious intentions could easily pull off the same stunt, encouraging or prompting Trump to take any number of actions.

Listen to the call here.