A US comedian and podcaster claims he was able to speak to both US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner on the phone by posing as a Democratic senator.

John Melendez, who produces the Stuttering John podcast, told CNN he was shocked that he was successful at getting a call put through to the US President, who was travelling on Air Force One at the time, by pretending to be New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

It is not known if Senator Menendez has responded to the apparent prank as yet.

“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,” CNN quoted Melendez as saying.

In an audio recording on the Stuttering John website, a voice that sounds like Donald Trump’s discusses immigration issues and the Supreme Court vacancy that opened up this week following the resignation of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Asked whether he would opt for a moderate or conservative choice of judge to fill the vacancy, Trump sidesteps the question.

“Well I have a list of people, I have a big list of people,” the voice (purportedly Trump’s) states. “I’ll probably make a decision over the next couple of weeks … we have some great choice.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he would announce his nominee on July 9 and that he has identified five finalists, including two women.

Travelling from Washington DC to his private golf club in New Jersey, Trump said he may interview two contenders for the nomination this weekend.

He said he will not ask candidates whether they would overturn a 1973 ruling in the Roe v Wade case, which established a woman’s right to abortion, nor would he discuss gay rights with them.

The president’s nominee must win confirmation by the Senate. Republicans control the chamber but only by a slim majority, making the views of moderates, including some Democrats, important.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday he hoped the confirmation process would be done “in time for the new justice to begin the fall term of the Supreme Court … the first Monday in October.”

White House aide Marc Short said on MSNBC that the White House hoped for a Senate confirmation vote in September.

That schedule would put a new justice in place before the congressional midterm elections in November, when all seats in the House of Representatives and a third of those in the Senate will be contested.

Trump met on Thursday with senators from both parties at the White House to discuss the court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, which was announced on Wednesday.

While Kennedy was a conservative, he proved to be a somewhat unpredictable “swing” vote over his long career. For example, he sided with the court’s liberals by voting in favour of abortion rights in key cases. That issue was expected to be one that senators will ask the new nominee about in confirmation hearings, even if the president does not.