Courtesy of John Di Domenico Enhanced Interrogation Meet the World’s Most Tremendous Trump Impersonator John Di Domenico has been playing Trump since 2004. “I’ve never had an impersonation evolve so much—and he’s 70 years old! It’s crazy,” he says.

Katelyn Fossett is associate editor at POLITICO Magazine.

“There’s kind of a lot of Trump competition,” Alec Baldwin told Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night, complaining about “these guys on the internet” lobbying to play Trump at the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner now that the president has announced he won’t be attending. “No one will top you,” Kimmel told him. “Tell these guys,” Baldwin answered.

John Di Domenico is the king of those guys. For decades, Di Domenico has been an actor and impersonator of everyone from Guy Fieri to Ozzy Osborne to Benjamin Franklin. But it’s his Trump act, which began in 2004 when Trump was on “The Apprentice,” that has launched him to a new level of fame.


What does Di Domenico have to say about the presidential makeover of the man he’s tried to inhabit for past 12 years? First, Trump’s way more animated than he used to be, according to Di Domenico, and the evolution is unlike anything else he’s seen in his career. From his weird first meeting with Trump to the time Trump thought he had died, I asked Di Domenico to tell us what it’s like when it’s your job to play the most powerful man in the world.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Excerpts:

POLITICO Magazine: How long have you been doing this and what kind of events do you perform at?

John Di Domenico: I’ve been doing Trump for 12 years, since 2004. Early on, it was mainly corporate stuff, national sales meetings, trade shows. I did a lot of team-building because “The Apprentice” fit perfectly with that kind of thing. And then I did some TV appearances through the 2000s. I did a couple of parody movies in the late 2000s—I think in 2008, I did Meet the Spartans. I did a lot of voice-overs, car dealerships—wherever I could work, that’s where I went, because I’m a journeyman actor, and anything I could do, I did.

POLITICO: What are some of your go-to Trump tics?

Di Domenico: Well you can’t see it, but I’m starting to do the hands all the time now. I call it the T-Rex thing, where he puts his upper arms against his chest, and then the forearms are constantly moving from side to side, and the thumbs up. And he does this thing that a lot of people do, where he comes onstage and he points to someone in the audience, who he probably doesn’t even know, and he goes, Oh, how are you, good to see you. You can see him mouthing it. So I always make sure to do that when I come onstage, walk slowly. He’s a kind of big guy, and he does this thing where he folds in his chest just a little bit. So when I come out, I wave to people, got my hands up, pointing at people. Good to see you. The two thumbs up. Hello, everybody, how are you. Wow, this is tremendous, look at this crowd, let me tell you. The let me tell you is big. Oh and Believe me. Believe me!

So there’s lots of physical stuff, there’s also this thing he does now where he—[sniffs]—not only does he sniff, he does this thing where he kind of sucks in the air through his mouth and then he pulls his jaw back, and it’s very quick. You have to notice it. He says, I have to tell you—[sniffs]—and then he gets on to the next sentence.

POLITICO: I think I know what you’re talking about.

Di Domenico: Yeah, and he’s so dynamic. I’ve been doing him since 2004, and he’s changed dramatically. I’ve never had an impersonation evolve so much—and he’s 70 years old! It’s crazy.

POLITICO: How has it evolved?

Di Domenico: If you took Trump from “The Apprentice” … The way I learned to do his voice was I was under the gun for a voice-over, and I had to learn his voice over a weekend, so I had to take a scientific approach, and I broke his voice down into elements, which I usually do anyway, but for him it was really quick. You do throat placement, nasal placement, vocal production, accent—all these little things and you put it together and you have his voice, hopefully. With him it was always [Trump voice] Blue team. Green team. You both worked very hard. Unfortunately, green team, you’re fired. So it was always a very conversational manner, unless he was giving the task. And if you go back and watch the first few seasons of “The Apprentice,” he would just stand there stock-still and say: Here is your challenge. You’re going to sell tires at a tire store. And that was it.

But when he started on the campaign trail after the announcement, all you’re seeing is … I remember the one stump speech where he was talking about Ben Carson, and he was all over the place. He’s physically moving now. He’s more guttural now: I can’t believe this—who knew this?! This thing where he’s constricting his vocal cords, releasing his vocal cords, and taking these shorter breaths. Did you see the CIA speech? He did this speech with, with this literally new vocal pattern, where he said [very softly and slowly]: You know, I turned on the TV. And they said: No one was on the inauguration. Nobody. DONALD TRUMP DOESN’T DRAW PEOPLE.

I notice if he does an interview with Scott Pelley he speaks one way, if he does an interview with Sean Hannity he speaks another way, if he speaks with Bill O’Reilly he speaks a different way. He speaks differently to different people, so I’m always looking for those little changes he makes. He knows that Bill O’Reilly is going to give him a little bit of pushback, but not too much, and he knows that Sean Hannity isn’t going to give him any pushback. [Laughs] And in interviews with Scott Pelley, he sits very specifically, his hands cover his balls, his legs are open, he’s in a defensive posture like he’s ready to move.

You go back to these interviews with Rona Barrett and Oprah Winfrey from 25 years ago, and he’s very relaxed. He’s very, [softly] Well, you know if I did run for president, I think I’d win, I have to tell you. It’s like he’s on Demerol or something. This is a totally animated person that you’re seeing now.

And obviously a lot of this is that he was on television. There’s this amazing fusion between politics and TV and entertainment. I mean, I think since Reagan we’ve had TV presidents, but here is a guy who literally lived on TV and knows what works and how to play to an audience.

POLITICO: Do you have a theory about why he’s so animated now?

Di Domenico: I think it’s the first time he’s running up against things on a larger scale. He’s just incredulous. He’s like, I had more people. Why won’t you… It’s like [sobbing voice] I had more people. Why are you saying this?

POLITICO: Do you think Trump is doing his own character?

Di Domenico: Yeah, I would think so. If you go back to him and the John Miller thing, I think yes, to a certain extent.

POLITICO: Have you ever met him?

Di Domenico: Yes, I did, on his 55th birthday party, at the Trump Castle, 15 years ago or whatever it would be now.

POLITICO: Was he nice to you?

Di Domenico: Oh, he’s very nice. He’s very charismatic, very charming. I was dressed as Austin Powers, and I had to do a bit where I was going to jump out of the cake at the end and give him the gift. I think it was 24 models or something that were going to do a big kick line on stage. It was funny because I got there and got in full Austin Powers costume and they brought me to a room where the band was and everyone else, and the PA came over and said Mr. Trump will be over in about 20 minutes and oh, by the way, when he gets here, please don’t shake his hand. I said, Oh, OK, that’s fine. And about 10 minutes later, someone else came up to me and said, Mr. Trump will be here very soon and you’ll go over everything, and by the way, when he gets here, please don’t shake his hand.

So I’m sitting on a couch, and you know how when you’re on a couch you look shorter than you actually are, you’re sunken in? So he comes in, and he’s a big guy, and I’ve always been fascinated with him—in 1987, my ex-wife gave me The Art of the Deal because I was so fascinated by him. So he walks in, and I think he saw me as a cartoon character to a certain extent, and he walked over and he said I’m Donald Trump, and he puts his hand right in my face. And everyone leaned in and was like, Shake his hand! Shake his hand!

John Di Domenico, the Trump impersonator

But he was very nice; when you meet him he’s very charming. When you watch him in certain situations, where he’s leading things like at the prayer breakfast, you can see there’s a certain charm to him in those environments.

Politico: So at that point had you been impersonating him?

Di Domenico: No, I didn’t do that until 2004, and in fact, he thinks I’m dead. He doesn’t think that now, but for a while, he was under the impression I was dead. But that’s a long story.

Politico: What’s the story?

Di Domenico: OK, here’s the story: I was one of the few people doing Trump. I’m like the second person ever to appear on national TV as Donald Trump. The person before me was Phil Hartmann. In 2006, I was on Fox and Friends as part of a cross-promotion between “The Apprentice” and Embassy Suites. Donald Trump was unavailable and that bit was airing so they needed a Trump, and I was one of the few people in the country who was doing it, so they brought me in. I came in, I did the bit, it got me a lot of publicity. He knew about me because I think they had to get approval for me to do the bit on “Fox and Friends.”

About six years ago, when I moved out to Vegas, a buddy of mine, who is an impersonator, I said: Doug, you’ve got to start doing Trump. Because he was doing it for me as a joke, and I said, Look, I’m not going to be able to fly back for $500 jobs; you’ve got to start doing this. So we went to Bob Kelly, who used to make all the wigs for Saturday Night Live and all the Broadway shows, and so he got a wig and started doing the shows.

And then unfortunately, my friend Doug had a stroke and passed away, and in one of the episodes of “The Apprentice,” they went to book Doug. They were under the impression that Doug was me, because I had left New York and no one knew. And if you watch this “Apprentice” episode, they say, Well, we were going to get an impersonator of you, but he died. And Trump says, Oh. I liked that guy. Sorry to hear he’s dead.

But for the past 10 months or so, I’ve been everywhere, I’ve met [White House aide] Kellyanne [Conway], and he knows who I am. I’ve been told that by multiple people.

POLITICO: Has Trump’s election helped you? Are you getting booked for a lot more events?

Di Domenico: Oh God, yes. I’m an actor, and you’re always looking for work, and the fact that I have this really long runway of doing this character for so long and having established myself back in 2006 with this appearance on Fox News for this promotion … It’s been pretty amazing. It’s been great.

POLITICO: What kind of insights do you think you’ve learned about him doing this?

Di Domenico: Are you familiar with Trumpcast, on Slate.com? So I’m the Trump on Trumpcast. We’ve been doing it for a year now. At the top of the show, I do the five or six tweets of the day, and I have to sit down and say, ‘How is he saying these tweets?’ I can’t do the same thing over and over and over again.

I even wrote a tweet, I guess it was the Golden Globes, after Meryl Streep said what she said, I basically wrote a tweet and I was about 50 percent right in my wording [in guessing] what Trump [actually] responded with. There’s a certain amount of predictability in what he’s going to say, and having said that I need to infuse it with a much deeper kind of meaning. You know, so it doesn’t get repetitive.

POLITICO: Has that ever helped you predict things about what sort of positions he’ll take? Does it give you any insight into how he governs, for instance?

Di Domenico: I think how he’s governing right now is he’s playing the role of a Republican and he’s doing it along those lines. If you listen to the speech [Tuesday] night … He’s not a policy guy, he’s never worked on legislation, or sat on a committee, or any of these things that everyone else has done.

And it’s not policy. There’s no specifics, because his attention span is so short. If you watch him speak, he’ll start his sentence, go back to the beginning of the sentence, start another sentence, go back beginning of the sentence, start a third sentence and by the time he wraps everything up, you forget what the hell he’s even talking about.

[Trump voice] Listen, listen, listen. Last week we’re in Chicago and by the way, fantastic city, great, the best Trump hotel is there, am I right? Am I right? Trump Tower is a tremendous building. Last week we’re in Chicago, and that Rahm Emanuel, does that business guy know what he’s doing? Does he know at all what he’s doing? He’s terrible! He’s terrible! So anyway last week we’re in Chicago, and the police there are fantastic, a really, really great police department, but highest murder rate ever. So we’re in Chicago ... [Laughs] So he just keeps diagramming back to the beginning of what he started. He comments within the sentence that he started.

POLITICO: What do you think of Alec Baldwin’s impression?

Di Domenico: Umm, he called me out last night. He called me out on Jimmy Kimmel.

POLITICO: What did he say?

Di Domenico: Oh God, he said There are these guys, these guys... There are only kind of two of us that dominate this thing. There are these guys, these guys on the internet, they’re like competition. They’re lobbying the White House Correspondents’ Association to get in. So I tweeted to him last night.

POLITICO: Do you think his impression is good?

Di Domenico: OK, so here’s the thing: He’s an incredible actor. Incredible talent. And if you’ve ever seen his Tony Bennett, it’s amazing. It’s very nuanced, the whole thing. But when he does Trump, and as he said last night on Kimmel, he literally didn’t know what [he was doing] until they did the 8 p.m. dress rehearsal on SNL. You know what I mean? He’d never done it. And I’ve been doing it since 2004. I personally think it’s very one-note—that’s just me, you know. My assessment is, considering who he is, and how he does a lot of the other voices, he should be better. But people obviously love it, so you know, who am I? I’m just some hack.