Key Points
Jenna Bush Hager is remembering a childhood prank she and her twin sister Barbara pulled on the U.S. government.
The Today host revealed she and Barbara prank called her grandfather George H. W. Bush’s office when he was vice president under Ronald Reagan.
She and her sister pretended to be Reagan, telling staffers, “It’s da pwesident!’
Jenna Bush Hager is remembering some of the government hijinks that she and her twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush got into as children.
The daytime host, who is the daughter of president George W. Bush and Laura Bush, revealed that she and her sister once prank called their grandfather George H.W. Bush’s office while he was vice president under Ronald Reagan.
“I didn’t get spanked — you remember, the ’80s people did that — I didn’t get it, but I was very close,” Jenna said on Wednesday’s episode of Today With Jenna and Sheinelle. “Because Barbara and I, we were 5, and we kept prank calling the vice president’s office.”
President George H. W. Bush with his granddaughters, Barbara (left) and Jenna, on the south lawn of the White House in 1989
Credit: Bettmann Archive
As part of the joke, Jenna explained that she and her sister dialed the White House and pretended to be Reagan over the phone.
“We were like, ‘It’s da pwesident!'” she recalled, noting that her grandfather’s staff was confused by the calls and “like, ‘What is happening?'”
While Jenna and Barbara had a blast calling up their grandfather’s high-profile place of work, other members of their political family didn’t find their prank very funny.
“My parents came home and we were actually at a friend’s house — Angie Butcher — I don’t know how we got the number. Sorry, Angie, I haven’t talked to you in 30 years,” she confessed. “And my parents were so mad at us.”
Jenna added, “We kept calling my grandpa’s office over and over again being like, ‘Blah, blah, blah pwesident,’ and hanging up.”
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George H.W. Bush would go on to become the 41st president of the United States from 1989 until 1993. His son, George W. Bush, would also serve as president from 2001 to 2009.
Jenna has spoken often about her famous family on Today. She previously paid tribute to her late grandfather by reading an emotional letter that she’d penned to celebrate what would’ve been his 100th birthday in 2024.
“Dear Gampy, we miss you,” Jenna read at the time. “We miss your letters and emails. We miss racing through the waves of the Atlantic on your boat — fishing, laughing, and debating around the dinner table.”
She added, “We miss your belief that we are better when we work together.”
Watch Jenna discuss prank calling a government office in the clip above.
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