Donald Trump admits he has a penchant for using aliases

(Image credit: Twitter.com/JimmyKimmelLive)

last updated 26 May 2016

Yes, Donald Trump admitted on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he has used aliases in the past, but it's only because he wanted to save money on real estate deals.

Trump explained to Kimmel that while setting up transactions, he would use "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'd often use an alias "when I was out in Brooklyn with my father and I'd want to buy something. 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."

Trump has shied away from reports that he used to pose as his own spokesman, going by such creative monikers as "John Miller" and "John Barron." His youngest son's name is Barron, and he said he did use that name once and made "a very good deal." He also revealed that he'd be delighted to have a one-on-one debate with Bernie Sanders, promising the duo "would have such high ratings." Watch the alias conversation below. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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