I just finished reading Michael Cohen’s new tell-all about his years as Donald Trump’s “fixer.” It is called Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. Quite a lot of the book consists of Cohen flaying himself for being a lackey who happily did Trump’s bidding, even when he knew that he was being asked to lie, cheat, or cover up for Trump’s misdeeds. He was a lawyer, and he showed no respect for the law. His job for Trump was to twist the law to benefit Trump and to silence those who claimed that Trump had wronged them.
There is a morbid fascination to the book. It confirms everything that Trump’s most rabid critics have said about him. He lies whenever it suits his purposes, and he expects his top executives to lie for him without hesitation. He is unscrupulous, amoral, cynical, and completely self-absorbed. Everyone else in the world is merely an instrument to advance his self-aggrandizement.
He despises the working people who constitute his base. He pretended to be a Christian to win over the evangelical leaders who met with him in Trump Tower and who blessed him with a “laying on of hands” ceremony; as soon as they left his presence, he ridiculed them. He has no religious beliefs whatever. He is obsessed with hating Obama; he even hired someone to impersonate Obama so he could pour out his wrath on the actor. Trump’s ticket to entry into politics was birtherism; he concocted a tale about sending investigators to Hawaii to determine whether Obama was an American citizen. He promised to release the findings. He never did. He claimed that Obama’s success in life was due solely to affirmative action, and hinted that Obama was a mediocre student. Meanwhile, he assigned Cohen the job of making sure that his own academic records from high school, college, and graduate school were never released.
When asked why he didn’t condemn the Saudi government for the murder of journalist Jamaal Khashoggi, Trump would say, “What the f— do I care? He shouldn’t have written what he did. He should have shut the f— up.” So much for freedom of the press.
Cohen spends much of the book explaining his attraction to Trump, whom he knew was a fraud. Trump demanded absolute and complete loyalty, and Cohen gave it to him, like a puppy dog. Cohen admitted that he was drawn to Trump’s outrageousness, his money, his power, his celebrity, his flair, and the excitement of being in a daily circus of chaos and drama.
Cohen’s fascination with Trump is foreshadowed by his description of his adolescence. He grew up in an affluent suburb on Long Island in New York. His father was a refugee who became a doctor. Young Michael had no interest in school, other than to get by. What he liked best was hanging out at his uncle’s club in Brooklyn, El Caribe, which was a favorite of Mafia figures. They were tough and brazen. They carried guns. He admired their cool, their wealth, their power. He writes about an incident where a wise guy took off his bathing suit in the middle of the club’s swimming pool, which was crowded with women and children. The tough guys told the miscreant to put his suit on; he didn’t. Then one of them pulled a gun and shot him in his butt. Blood streaked the water. When the police arrived, nodody knew anything, no one saw it happen. Cohen relished, as a Trump executive, being armed, with a gun on his belt, another in an ankle holster. He says Trump too was armed.We learn that Trump regularly ridicules Don Jr. in front of other people. He thinks Don Jr. is a fool and a loser. Don Jr. takes his father’s insults and put-downs with silence; he is used to his scorn. Tiffany, the only child of Marla Maples, is treated by her half-siblings as an outsider. Jared is an arrogant snob. Cohen says that Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016, Corey Lewandowski, was a drunk and was having an affair with Hope Hicks.
Trump is very boastful about his sexual prowess. He thinks that he can have any woman he wants. Cohen recalls a day when he took his family to swim at Trump’s New Jersey golf club. Trump spotted a young woman on one of his tennis courts and said, “Look at that piece of ass. I would love some of that.” Cohen was mortified. It was his 15-year-old daughter. Cohen was too supine to object.
If you enjoy hearing tales of how Trump managed to trick others and stiff the little guys, you will find much to enjoy. For Trump, the “art of the deal” consisted of cleverly cheating people of millions of dollars. Contractors and subcontractors who worked on Trump properties were lucky to get 20% of what Trump owed them. Anyone who threatened to sue him was threatened with a countersuit that would bankrupt them. Who wants to be sued by a billionaire with deep pockets?
Michael Cohen is in prison. It is hard to feel sorry for him. He chose his fate. As a young man, he admired gangsters, and he loved being in the company of ruthless thugs. In Trump-world, he found the environment in which he flourished, providing the muscle and threats to compel people to back off when Trump cheated them.
He is less interesting than the mega-star in whose orbit he lived: a liar, a con man, a cheat, a narcissist, a man with no ethics or morality or conscience. Trump attracted moths to his flame, and Cohen got burned.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As much as I already know about Donald Trump, as I read your synopsis of the book I continue to be in disbelief that this man is our president.
“…a liar, a con man, a cheat, a narcissist, a man with no ethics or morality or conscience.”
One wonders whether people of the contraction of BLIND SPOTS depends upon the nature of one’s belief system. While Trump is called “a liar, a con man, a cheat, a narcisist, a man with no ethics or morality or conscience,” Barack Hussein Obama is perceived as a veritable ANGELIC SAVIOR that descended “from heaven” and…..did what? Lied, conned, cheated, love himself, had no ethics, no morality, and no conscience.
And, no, I’m NOT a member of a neo-Nazi group, the KKK, Skin Heads, or any other such group. My name is Ronald Dennis Chism. My black-as-coal daddy was Nathaniel Spain Chism. My “high-hellow” mamma was Azelma Dolores Chism. And my black-as-coal grandma was Emma Chism (Sugarbaby). I’m a brown-skinned, black American. And I call Obama for WHAT HE WAS: a snake. Not hard to prove, either.
He stands in front of Brother Leader Colonel Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi; shakes his hands; then “promises” that if Brother Leader stopped his nuclear program, Libya would “never” be attacked. Well, THAT takes care of SIX on that list:
Liar
Con man
Cheat
No ethics
No morality
No Conscience [ESPECIALLY no conscience]
Barack Hussein Obama, my “black brother” [NOT!!!], worked with Sarkozi, Cameron, taqfiris, jihadis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and NATO to destroy a country, Libya, whose total population was less than the total population of metropolitan Chicago.
I served as an independent journalist, covering the assault on Libya, along with about 15 other journalists. I wrote 200 articles for Mathaba.net, in nine months, trying my level best, as were other HUMANS, alerting the world to Obama’s supreme EVIL, and the immense pain and suffering that was occurring in Libya because of that international criminal, and demon, Barack Hussein Obama.
The evil was so intense that a white conservative YouTube content creator, Brodel [Can’t remember the first name], CRIED on the night Tripoli fell. He was NOT a fan of Arabs. But, like the rest of us, he cried over the EVIL of Barack Hussein Obama’s destruction of innocent [YES, INNOCENT!!] people.
Gaddafi was LOVED by the African people!! Nelson Mandella said the following [this is a paraphrase, but very close],
“In our darkest hours, here in South Africa, when we thought that all was lost, my friend, Muammar Gaddafi, came to our rescue.” The only person to do more for South African than Gaddafi was Fidel Castro, the DARLING of the international left–that same international left that, along with Obama, conspired and destroyed Libya, which is still living in HELL.
My “black brother” [NOT!], Obama, “succeeded” in causing the black Tawergha people of Libya, who, since 1969, had been SAFE and treated EQUALLY under Gaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya, to be,
1.) CAGED like animals, by taqfiris and johadis
2.) TORTURED
3.) SOLD INTO SLAVERY
4.) MURDERED
The towns in which the Tawergha people once lived are now GHOST TOWNS. They can no longer go back there. THANKS, Barack Hussein Obama, my BLACK brother!!! [NOT!!!!!]
And, of course, his devil “WIFE” (Hillary Rodham Clinton), and Secretary of State, CONFIRMED Obama’s evil with a statement that she made, no recorded in history forever (and also at YouTube):
“We came! We saw! He died!!”
She said this about a head of state, Gaddafi, who had been sodomized, tortured, and slaughtered in the streets of Libya, without a trial, by a MOB. She GLORIED in that treatment of Gaddafi!! And here it is, folks, in living color:
You all who lambaste Trump as being the devil incarnate are HYPOCRITS and DEVILS YOURSELVES! When it’s CONVENIENT to turn your back on others who don the same characteristics as you CLAIM Trump has, or that anyone you disagree with has, that’s what you do.
Obama was your DARLING, but you didn’t GIVE a fuck about the people of Libya!!! All Obama had to do was SMILE. And you FEEL-GOOD white liberals loved him because it made you feel that, “Wow, I’m really SO LIBERAL!!! I’m really SO NICE!!! I supported a BLACK MAN becoming the President of the United States!!!”
Fake. Fake. Fake. You’ve ALWAYS been fake. You support Black Lives Matter, which is the ENEMY of black people, claiming virtually out-and-out stating that black males are no longer needed in the black family, and turning its back on the black nuclear family, which, pre-1960s, was the BEDROCK of the black community, which produced professionals of all types.
No, you couldn’t STAND that! You wanted to render us IMPOTENT, so you could choose WHEN, HOW, and WHO that ONE “successful black man” would be who would give you your liberal ORGASM, but make sure that the NIGGERS kept their place. You’ve never fooled those of us in the black community who can THINK and can SEE. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabaaz peeped you guys when he said,
“A Dixiecrat is no different than a Democrat, and a Democrat is no different than a Dixiecrat.”
I’ve noticed that when Trump meets, in the White House, with black folks, there is NEVER a poverty pimp, like Al Sharpton, there. He always invites COMPETENT people, from the community, NOT just the CHOSEN NIGGERS of the white liberal elite.
Last, what countries has Trump destroyed, hum? He KEPT HIS PROMISE to keep us out of war! Obama won a Nobel Prize for “peace,” and then went and destroyed Libya, and TRIED to destroy Syria.
Luckily, the Syrian people; Syrian people’s militias, backed by Syrian businessmen; the Syrian Arab Army; Hezbollah; Iraqi fighters trained by Hezbollah; Iran; Russia; and Assad stopped your SAVIOR from destroying Syria.
When I first saw Obama, before he announced running for President the first time, I said to myself, “He’s sneaky. He can’t be trusted.” How did I know that? My GUT. But, I voted for him because my wife got all teary-eyed about “the first black President.”
I DID NOT vote for him the second time, and I DEEPLY REGRETTED that I voted for him the first time.
You people are HYPOCRITES. You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Why no condemnation of your SAVIOR, Obama, as a
Liar
Con man
Cheat
No ethics
No morality
No Conscience [ESPECIALLY no conscience]???
You’re sickenly typical. Those of my people who can SEE and THINK have known you for a long time. You don’t fool us. That’s why we’re voting for Trump. Let the BLexit [BLACK EXIT FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY] continue.
I didn’t write the book.
Trump’s personal lawyer did.
Read it to learn what he thought about people of color. One quote: “Any country run by a black is a shithole country.”
Your hero hates you.
Excuse me, it was the right wingers who were calling for Gaddafi’s head for decades. The late right wing talk radio host, racist and hate monger, Bob Grant, routinely signed off with the chant “Get Gaddafi,” in a taunt at Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi. The right wingers were frothing at the mouth to have Gaddafi assassinated. Chism must be a paid right wing troll.
For Chism: I guess you forgot that it was Reagan (GOP, conservative) who ordered the bombing of Libya. And this from wikipedia: Libya represented a high priority for President Ronald Reagan shortly after his 1981 inauguration. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was firmly anti-Israel and had supported violent organizations in the Palestinian territories and Syria. and [snip] The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, comprised air strikes by the United States against Libya on Tuesday 15 April 1986. The attack was carried out by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps via air strikes, in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier. end quotes
This election is between Trump and Biden. Trump said in Charlottesville that there were good people on both sides… after Heather Heyer was murdered. Biden won’t agitate for the killing of people of color because of their race. Biden won’t work to set back the rights of women.
U.S.’ rulers have a vile history of paving the way for exploitive colonialists. Trump is the poster photo for those people.
The world’s most pressing concerns are concentration of wealth and climate change. There is no contest between Biden and Trump. The Democratic candidate in any race is not God almighty nor even close but, they are far better than Republicans.
Herman Cain is a cautionary tale.
Trump is holding another indoor mask less rally. Nevada. Guaranteed super spreader.
Another sign of your impact and influence, Diane. The lunatics in the grass are coming out to troll you. They wouldn’t if you didn’t have such a strong, influential voice. Somebody please fill this guy’s Ritalin prescription!
Thanks, Greg. I get a fair number of Trumper comments that are too disgusting to post. I delete them. One recently contained a sexual threat/insult. These guys go low.
You are – quite clearly – a throughly mentally ill person, like any else who worships both Gadaffi and Donald Trump.
And my fear is they will go lower and lower and lower the closer they get to an election that appears they will lose.
Truly ugly people.
Trump said at his weekend rally that circumstances had given him permission to be nasty.
Chism’s stated position would lead him to write in a candidate, not vote fro Trump.
And this Disgrace-in-Chief is now in my hometown of Sacramento, no doubt feigning concern for the victims of our California wildfires. Are they, too, mere “suckers” and “losers”?
But Trump has solutions! For Covid–take hydroxychloroquine or inject disinfectants! For California wildfires, sweep the forests! The fires have nothing whatsoever to do with global warming, which is a Chinese hoax, and everything to do with “Democrat mismanagement.” And thank goodness Ivanka created millions of jobs. Nice legs, huh? Otherwise, the economy would be tanking. And if your wartime president hadn’t stopped air travel from China, a lot of Americans would have died. Fortunately, his decisive action to stop test development and accurate reporting has saved hundreds of thousands of lives! And Joe Biden is a Socialist. And in a second Trump administration, Mexico will pay for the wall, and the Space Force will send astronauts to the Sun, and we’ll honor our slave holders from yesteryear, and China will pay us trillions in tariffs, and you’re gonna get so tired of winning. And how about those Trump steaks, huh?
What’s done is done, but if people haven’t bought it yet, please don’t give money to this scumbag by buying his book.
I won’t read it–mostly because my pile of unread books seems to keep growing exponentially–but everything I’ve seen, from his appearance before the House Government Oversight Committee in what turned out to be Rep. Cummings’s swan song, through today, is that he demonstrates genuine contrition. He may or may not be a scumbag, but what is undeniable is that his regret is genuine. Whether he got there because he got caught and was sent to prison is secondary. This is the primary reason I will not be seduced by the people behind the so-called Lincoln Project, Nicole Wallace, David Frum, etc. They have not shown one bit of contrition for their roles in poisoning the political system. Cohen has and continues to do so.
Agree re the Lincoln Project. Not sure I agree about Cohen. When I listened to the audio tapes of him threatening people on Trump’s behalf, I recognized the worst kind of bully. I’m sure he regrets a lot of things, but I can’t believe he won’t always be that bully when it suits him.
The only goal of the people behind the Lincoln Project is to persuade people not to vote for Trump, McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and their ilk. Do you disagree with that goal? Why do you think they are trying to “seduce” you? To do what?
I did not urge anyone to buy the book. My review tells you all you need to know.
Great read, Diane. Thank you.
trump is a very sick person and UNFIT to serve. Where’s the straight jacket and hook?
I have recurring image … trumpsy implodes all over himself on camera for all to see.
The sad thing about all these tell all books is that there are about 5-6 years too late to be of any use in dissuading 45’s base, including those already in the House and Senate who changed their tune, regarding their support of his 2016 presidential bid. One by one, they either withdrew from politics, became less vocal in their opposition, or jumped in with both feet, supporting him in order to accomplish the destruction of governing for the people. Under the combined rule, they are also destroying government of the people and by the people. They are not alone in this work. Neoliberals from all camps have furthered the distance between themselves and the “of, for, and by people” going back to at least JFK, in the “modern” era of politics. 45’s supporters love all of his coarseness and isms because it has created the image that he is one of them. The “tell alls” simply and conveniently reinforce the belief in fake news and false narrative. Facts are meaningless in 45’s sphere.
You’re right. Trump’s followers are a cult. They would vote for him even if he “killed someone on 5th avenue”. A substantial number are in the cult because they are racists like Trump..
Here’s a link to the interview in Vanity Fair with Michael Cohen’s daughter:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/michael-cohens-daughter-reflects-on-his-time-with-trump.
Vanity Fair also has an interesting article from a republican ex-strategist. I would post the link if I were not technologically illiterate.
Roy
Just insert the link
WordPress automatically makes it active.
(They got that much right)
I just looked it up and this is what I found:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/ex-republican-strategist-surveys-the-wreckage-of-trumps-gop
SDP you are good to me. I only know how to touch a link and read it. That is not too bad, I just got a smart phone three weeks ago.
Still dragging my feet on getting a smart phone, Roy…
Give a man a link and you link him to one story.
Teach a man to link and he will link for life.
Not sure whether that is a good thing.
Lol!! That made me laugh.
The saddest part of the tell all books is that a significant fraction of the public buys them, even though they don’t reveal anything that was not already known or that could not have been easily guessed.
Of course, most of those who buy them undoubtedly do so not because they are Trump supporters searching for the truth or even because they are on the fence about Trump but simply because it reinforces what even a sea urchin could have guessed.
And a below average intelligence sea urchin, at that
Sorry, I will not read Cohen’s book. Too many in front of this one, as pointed out by Greg above. I do appreciate good reviews, however. Studying history formally taught me to depend on articles, reviews and parts of monographs in the face of my inability to consume large quantities of reading material.
Hard conclusions, but just, and deserved by Trump. Ms. Ravitch sums Donald up, based on the book, as: ‘a liar, a con man, a cheat, a narcissist, a man with no ethics or morality or conscience.’ Not sure she missed anything there. Michael Cohen, she says, got burnt by Trump’s flame. I have met some people who seem drawn to characters like Trump. They are willing to give their all for that person and seem unable to oppose them in the smallest way. Scary people for they allow themselves to be used for bad.
The picture does correspond with what we see day to day, a man who seems to put his interests above everything else. Fortunately, we have just over a month to exercise our voting rights, to jettison this baggage from our political ship. Hopefully, America votes him out.
INTEGRITY. We have lost that here in the US. No longer do we value people and relationship….we bow to the almighty dollar and will do anything to grab some of the green. We have a moral problem in the US and the fake christianity feeds it.
Cohen is another amoral character in the basket of deplorables that is Trump’s administration. Trump made him a scapegoat for his misdeeds. Now Cohen is trying to do a public “mea culpa” and cash in on his infamy. I am not interested in his excuses. I would only be interested if he had access to Trump’s taxes, but Cohen knows nothing. He was one of Trump’s rotating crew of enablers.
I am not sure if Michael Cohen is still in prison. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison on December 12, 2018, but was released early due to the pandemic. Then he was sent back to prison because of Trump going to court to stop this book from being released, but the judge let Cohen out again and ruled that being sent back to prison was retaliation by Trump and Barr.
I think Cohen is under home arrest now.
“Cohen, who was first furloughed from the prison in late May, was picked up by his son, who drove him back to their apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He will serve out the remainder of his three-year criminal sentence there under home confinement.
“His term is due to end Nov. 22, 2021.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/24/former-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-released-from-prison-again.html
I read last week that there have been more than 1,200 books published by people that once worked for Trump in business or in the White House about Trump since he became president and most of them were critical.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
How can any sane, open-minded person support Donald Trump unless they are a criminal and racist, too?
Would we hear much about Michael Cohen, if his name was Michael Carter instead?
🤔😮
Well, I’m taking a break from working a large part of the weekend trying to figure out how I’ll keep my classes flying. We’re now off the ground, but how America (including my very small corner of it) keeps our public schools aloft is a story to be continued….
it was truly wonderful to see my students. And, they deserve tremendous credit for their patience and bravery.
Cohen, Trump, etc….etc… on the other hand…There should be a book entitled Profiles in LACK of Courage. Reading it would be akin to swimming in a septic tank -a cesspool for one’s brain and heart. . Even the title would be a sort of rip off of a book that is now questioned as being rip off. (Rip offs on top of scams heaped over celebrity nonsense… on and on…the bad, ole U.S.A.)
Then I envision another book…maybe called Bravery or Integrity or just plain Citizen. And it would have real life stories of people in our country famous and totally unknown who are doing their parts RIGHT NOW to keep the best values of our nation alive amidst this crisis. The book would ennoble us, celebrating what we know we can still be.
Young people would be many of the key characters.
I could write that better book.
But first, lunch…ha, ha.
And, yeah, planning, planning, planning for school….and hoping for the best.
Take care.
Thanks for reading and reviewing – I got the flavor, which I was sure of as soon as the news of the book came out. I don’t have the stomach to be fascinated, even in an evil way, by the very existence of narcissistic evil.
And the sycophants it encourages.
Just the brush with it is like getting within a hundred yards of a corpse flower.
“pretended to be a Christian to win over evangelicals”. Was that Cohen’s parsing? If he wrote the book today would he mention the Trump and Barr dog and pony show that moved to the Catholic shrine?
All of the outreach to other religious people like Bishop Dolan, no mention in Cohen’s book?
Did Cohen write about Steve Bannon’s campaign strategy targeting the other religious sect?
If he didn’t mention it, odd that.
I remember Trump, at someone’s (I forget who) funeral. Trump didn’t know when to sit, stand and turn the page. Melanie and the Obamas knew all those things. 🤔😮
It must have been the Bush Senior funeral.
Yes, that’s it. Thanks! 🤓
If Trump was a regular church attendee, he’d know those rituals. 👼
A meme that is going around:
Trump Smoke Detectors. They stay silent so that you don’t panic.
TAGO, & so true.
Or how about: they stay silent, so you don’t have to? (Or can’t; silence is complicity.)
Great review, Diane. Thanks!
Huffpo- The “health official out to manipulate CDC reports has deep Russian ties.”
About Michael Caputo’s background- he and Kellyanne Conway (the theocratic Council for National Policy) liked Pence for Trump’s VP. Caputo was a Bannon ally in getting Trump elected. Before that, Caputo was Carl Paladino’s campaign manager. During Paladino’s campaign for governor, Caputo said,, “Carl’s position on gay marriage is exactly equivalent to that of the Catholic Church…” Michael and Carl also appear to share
a similar view about race. While Pence converted from Catholicism to evangelical, the other 3 did not.
Correction- the other 4 did not.
Eddie: Curious as to what you mean by your comment at 1:10 yesterday, wondering if we would hear as much about “Michael Cohen if his name was Michael Carter instead?”
retired, I wonder if Cohen is news, because he’s affiliated with Trump and/or his Jewish surname. 🤔
Cohen is news because he was Trump’s personal lawyer and “fixer.”
Thanks, dianeravitch. 🙂