Meet the YouTube Prankster Driving Trump Republicans Crazy

If you’re a prominent figure in Trumpworld, conservative media, or QAnon land, there is a decent chance Chris James has pranked you over the phone.

On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, James, a Canada-based comedian and host of the Not Even a Show YouTube series, sits down with hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng to discuss his efforts to get one over on the likes of Rudy Giuliani, Seb Gorka, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others.

“I called Rudy Giuliani on his cellphone when he was Trump’s lawyer, when… they were trying to overturn the election and he was Trump’s lead counsel,” James recounted. “I phoned him from just a random phone number, and I just said, ‘Mr. Giuliani, I have information that… will help overturn this election.’ And he said, ‘Let’s hear it.’ And I just couldn’t believe this was the lead counsel to the president of the United States trying to overturn elections.”

James’ tip for how then-President Trump could cling to power? “My lead was that Rudy Giuliani had married and had sex with his cousin.”

He continued, “These people are in positions of power and they are acting in this incredibly reckless way.” James added that when he cold-called Marjorie Taylor Greene, she bought that he was one of her biggest supporters… until he said who he was calling for. And sometimes James’ pranks do more than simply annoy his conservative targets. He says he’s called Rep. Crenshaw “a lot” and that one time the Texas congressman “called me back and he wanted to have a fistfight with me.”

Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer run down their latest reporting on how the false notion of Trump’s August restoration to the White House worked its way up from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, through right-wing fever swamps and fan-fic, all the way up to the former president’s delusional ears. Also, if you’ve been wondering how Fox News star Greg Gutfeld’s new paid-subscriber venture is going… Sommer has found that it mostly feels like a lazy effort to show his fans just how stupid they are for giving him their hard-earned money.

Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.