Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he often used aliases to purchase real estate but continued to deny he’d been caught on tape pretending to be an imaginary spokesman in a recently-released recording.
“You know, over the years I’ve used aliases,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that capped a day of campaigning across the Los Angeles area.
Like John Miller, John Barron …
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied that he posed as a spokesman for himself decades ago using the names “John Miller” and “John Barron.” But when asked by Jimmy Kimmel what aliases he’d used, Mr. Trump volunteered Barron, which is also the name of Trump’s youngest son.
“I actually used the name Barron,” said Mr. Trump, who said he’d made “a very good deal using that name.”
Meeting with Mr. Donald Trump!
“I used an alias in terms of setting up a meeting with Mr. Donald Trump. And many people in the real estate business do that, you use alias. And you have to, frankly, otherwise they find out it’s you and they charge you more money — and nobody wants to pay more money,” he said.
Mr. Trump said he’d used the tactic “especially when I was out in Brooklyn with my father and I’d want to buy something.”
If you are trying to buy land
“And honestly nobody knew who Trump was at that time, nobody knew me, so it wasn’t so much so important. But I would never want to use my name because you had to pay money for the land. If you’re trying to buy land, you use different names,” he said.
The appearance on the late-night show marked the end of a busy day that included a rally and Mr. Trump’s first major campaign fundraiser.
Name caller and the protests
A day after violent protesters outside a Trump rally threw burning items at police and toppled barricades, Mr. Trump’s afternoon rally in Anaheim was boisterous but less heated. He railed against “Crooked Hillary” Clinton and leaders in his own party who haven’t yet endorsed him.
