Does a viral post prove that U.S. President Donald Trump called C-SPAN to complain about the Supreme Court's decision making his previous sweeping tariffs on foreign goods illegal? No, that's not true: The caller who introduced himself as "John Barron" was not identified as Trump anywhere except for social media. The TV channel issued a statement refuting the rumor that it was Trump calling under a made-up name.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on February 22, 2026. It opened:
That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. It's definitely him. The president is a child. Who does that???
Also, God help us.
The post shared a fragment from the C-SPAN broadcast. The lower banner seen on the screen read:
6-3 SUPREME COURT DECISION STRIKES DOWN TRUMP TARIFFS.
The video contained the following exchange between the TV host and the caller whose voice sounded strikingly similar to that of Trump:
HOST: John in Virginia, Republican, let's hear from you.
CALLER: Well, this is John Barron, and you have... look, you have this is the worst decision you ever have in your life, practically... Jack... and Jack is going to agree with me, right? But this is a terrible decision. And you have Hakeem Jeffries, who is... he's a dope. And you have Chuck Schumer, who can't cook a cheeseburger. Of course, these people are happy. Of course, these people are happy, but true Americans will not be happy. And you have the woman earlier -- I assume she's a woman, she's a Democrat -- but she said she's just, she's disgraced, she's devastated.
HOST: All right, John, we'll go to Chester, who's in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Democratic caller.
This is what the clip looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/cenkuygur)
The clip was an unaltered fragment from an authentic February 20, 2026, C-SPAN broadcast dedicated to the discussion about the Supreme Court decision (archived here) that banned Trump's tariffs on foreign goods. The material reused in the post on X can be found at the 44:55 mark in the full recording of the program (archived here) published under the title:
Supreme Court Decision on President Trump's Tariffs.
Viewer calls and other reaction to the Supreme Court's decision on President Trump's authority to impose tariffs.
The video's description said nothing about Trump calling in to complain on that day.
A search on the C-SPAN website, however, showed two different - much shorter -- clips that referred (archived here) to the caller in question as Trump. But those were user-generated videos, and they were marked as such.
According to a 2016 Washington Post article (archived here), Trump once introduced himself as "John Barron" to act as his own spokesperson.
On February 22, 2026, C-SPAN issued a statement (archived here), refuting the claim on X. It read:
Because so many of you are talking about Friday's C-SPAN caller who identified himself as 'John Barron,' we want to put this to rest: it was not the president. The call came from a central Virginia phone number and came while the president was in a widely covered, in-person White-House meeting with the governors.
A search on Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) showed that no credible media organizations identified the caller who used Trump's pseudonym as the real Trump.
Lead Stories reached out for additional comments to C-SPAN and the White House, but did not receive an immediate response. If we hear back, this story will be updated as appropriate.
