Trump Prank-Called Michigan Congresswoman, New Book Claims

Trump reportedly posed as a Washington Post reporter, asking Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell a series of questions about her 2019 impeachment vote.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) didn't recognize the name the caller gave her on the phone, but she had a feeling it could be Donald Trump, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman's new book.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) didn't recognize the name the caller gave her on the phone, but she had a feeling it could be Donald Trump, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman's new book.
Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump reportedly prank-called a Michigan congresswoman after she voted to impeach him in 2019, according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

Haberman described the prank call that Trump allegedly made to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) in a Twitter thread on Wednesday.

Trump allegedly posed as a Washington Post reporter, asking Dingell a series of questions about her impeachment vote.

“Rep. Debbie Dingell got a call on her cell phone after she said she was voting to impeach Trump in 2019,” Haberman posted. “Trump excoriated her recently deceased, popular husband at a rally, and she condemned it. The next day, she got a call on her cell from someone claiming to be a Washington Post reporter whose name she didn’t know. The more he talked, she couldn’t shake the sense that it was President Trump.”

Haberman said the quotes from the prank phone call never appeared in any Washington Post story.

In a review of Haberman’s forthcoming book, “Confidence Man,” The Washington Post gave more detail about the alleged call. Haberman said the man on the phone knew Dingell’s late husband, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), from “his investigations in Congress.”

“The name he gave was not one she recognized,” Haberman implied. “The man asked Dingell if she was looking for an apology from Trump. No, she replied, merely that people could be civil to one another.”

Trump reportedly has a history of calling members of the media under such aliases as “John Miller” or “John Barron,” according to The Washington Post. He would pretend to be a publicist or a spokesperson defending the issues surrounding Trump’s life and bragging about Trump’s prowess and accomplishments.

HuffPost reached out to Dingell but did not hear back in time for publication.

Trump was displeased with Debbie Dingell’s impeachment vote, which prompted him to say at a December 2019 rally that her late husband received “A+ treatment” for his funeral and suggested he’s “looking up” from hell. After John Dingell died in early 2019, Trump ordered all U.S. flags to fly at half-staff in his honor.

She calls me up. It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened,” Trump claimed at the rally. “‘Thank you so much. John should be so thrilled. He’s looking down. He’d be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, don’t worry about it.’ Maybe he’s looking up. I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe. But let’s assume he’s looking down.”

Dingell condemned Trump’s statements, saying that “you brought me down in a way you can never imagine,” and “your hurtful words just made my healing much harder,” on Twitter in 2019.

John Dingell was the longest-serving congressman in U.S. history. He was replaced by his wife in November 2014, after retiring earlier that year.

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