Pass the popcorn!

Damn, this is entertaining. The WP has obtained a recording of a phone call in which someone named John Miller, who claims to be a Donald Trump employee, sings the praises of his boss. But "John Miller" is clearly Trump himself.

The call came from 1991, when a People magazine reporter named Sue Carswell called Trump's office to inquire about the Ivana/Marla Maples nonsense.

Within five minutes, Carswell got a return call from Trump’s publicist, a man named John Miller, who immediately jumped into a startlingly frank and detailed explanation of why Trump dumped Maples for the Italian model Carla Bruni. “He really didn’t want to make a commitment,” Miller said. “He’s coming out of a marriage, and he’s starting to do tremendously well financially.”

Miller turned out to be a remarkably forthcoming source — a spokesman with rare insight into the private thoughts and feelings of his client. “Have you met him?” Miller asked the reporter. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not going to hurt anybody. . . . He treated his wife well and . . . he will treat Marla well.”

“Actresses,” Miller said in the call to Carswell, “just call to see if they can go out with him and things.” Madonna “wanted to go out with him.” And Trump’s alter ego boasted that in addition to living with Maples, Trump had “three other girlfriends.”

Miller was consistent about referring to Trump as “he,” but at one point, when asked how important Bruni was in Trump’s busy love life, the spokesman said, “I think it’s somebody that — you know, she’s beautiful. I saw her once, quickly, and beautiful . . . ” and then he quickly pivoted back into talking about Trump — then a 44-year-old father of three — in the third person.

In 1990, Trump testified in a court case that “I believe on occasion I used that name.” He did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

Trump, lying fuck that he is, denies that he posed as John Miller. He then went on the attack, accusing WP owner Jeff Bezos of having "huge antitrust problems."

On Today, Trump said: "That's not me. Trust me. It doesn't sound like me. How pathetic. You're going back 20-plus years for a story. Sad."

This, from the asshole who wants to dredge up the Monica Lewinsky scandal (about which everything there is to say has already been said).

My first reaction? I immediately flashed on the collapse of Joe Biden's candidacy. In case you don't recall, the media reacted with outrage and umbrage when they caught him lifting a few lines from a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock. At the time, conservatives acted as though Biden had committed the most vile sin since Cain.

How times have changed. How our standards have changed.

Imagine for one second how people would react if anyone named Clinton had been caught impersonating himself (and bragging about his multiple affairs). Seriously: Suppose that a Clinton totally unrelated to Bill or Hillary -- a Clinton who lives in England -- had been caught "pulling a Trump." You know damned well that the entire media would scream for Hillary to get out of the race, on the grounds that anyone named Clinton is untrustworthy.

Right now, the pro-Trump sites are flailing and sputtering in a desperate attempt to change the topic. "But....Hillary! But...Obama!" And when in doubt: "BENGHAAAAAAAZZZZIIIII!!!"

They can't defend Trump's impersonation. They can't defend his inane, ridiculous, transparent lies about that impersonation. They can't defend a candidate with a phobic reaction to the truth.

Trump has outed himself: He's a nut.

Only an insane person would would ever have thought that he could get away with that puerile "John Miller" gambit. Only an insane person would refuse to apologize once he has been well and truly caught out.

Similarly, only an insane person would think that he can run for president without divulging to the world that he is really worth a lot less than he pretends.

Finally: Sheldon Adelson has formally endorsed Donald Trump.

As has John Bolton and Walid Phares.

Can we finally end this nonsense we've all heard about Trump being the antidote to neoconservativism? Hillary may be on too-friendly terms with the Kagan clan, but she is also friendly with the Blumenthals. She had an entirely laudable connection to the entirely laudable Tyler Drumheller. Trump, by contrast, surrounds himself with the worst assholes on the planet -- people like Adelson, Bolton and Roger Stone.