Prankster claims he tricked Donald Trump with prank call pretending to be democratic senator

The prankster and the apparent president discuss immigration, and the Supreme Court

An American comedian claims that he successfully prank called the White House, and received a call back from President Donald Trump himself.

John Melendez published a podcast that features a recording of him speaking by phone with a man who sounds like the president while pretending to be Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey.

“Hi, Bob. How are you? Congratulations on everything, we’re proud of you,” the voice that is said to have been Mr Trump’s says, in apparent reference to the senator’s recently closed five-year corruption investigation.

“You went through a tough, tough situation, and I don’t think a very fair situation, but congratulations,” the voice continues.

Mr Melendez, who is a veteran performer having appeared on Howard Stern and Jay Leno’s shows, continued acting as the Democratic senator, and asked Mr Trump what he can tell his constituents about the thousands of immigrant children who have been separated from their parents at the US border.

“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,” the voice who sounded like the president said.

The two eventually discussed Mr Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court nominee, and the apparent Mr Trump said that he had “a big list of people” and said that he would announce his pick in 12 to 14 days.

Mr Melendez later told CNN that he was surprised to receive the call from the apparent president, who was said to be aboard Air Force One at the time. He said that the whole thing started with a call to the White House switchboard, and did not take much time at all.

“I just could not believe that it took us an hour and a half to get Jared Kushner and Donald Trump on the phone from Air Force One,” he told that news network.

The incident has raised questions about White House security protocol, and Politico has reported that the West Wing was “scrambling” after the call to try and determine how the prank caller was able to get the president on the line so easily.

Mr Menendez, the real one, released a statement following the prank call’s publication criticising Mr Trump’s border separation policies. He continued to say he would “welcome any opportunity to have a real conversation with the president on how to uphold the American values that have guided our family-based immigration policy for the past century”.