I received Michael Cohen’s book, Disloyal: A Memoir, in the mail last Thursday and finished it over the weekend. Let me start by stating that if I were king, and I understand that we can only have one king at a time in this country and that position is already filled, but if I were king, I would command that every eligible voter read this book prior to voting in the upcoming election. Although, based upon the pictures of the collective lunacy on display at Trump’s rally in Nevada last, it would probably not change any minds of those who have already chosen to put their lives at risk for a chance to see their Svengali Trump in person. Nonetheless, it is a very disturbing portrait of the man at the helm of this country.
Prior to this I read John Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened, and Mary Trump’s book, Too Much and Never Enough. John Bolton was Trump’s former National Security Advisor and much of his account is through the lens of foreign policy, such as it is, during the Trump administration. Mary Trump’s (Trump’s niece) book was from a family insider who shed light on much of Trump’s background and how he came to be who he is today. Cohen’s book is from the perspective in his position as Trump’s personal attorney and chief ‘fixer’. Michael Cohen was in daily contact with Trump virtually every day for a decade and was the one responsible for dealing with all of Trump’s ‘personal’ issues. All three books are consistent in painting a picture of an amoral man, whose every decision is based upon how it will benefit him personally with virtually no regard for any human collateral damage that happens along the way.
No doubt there are those who will dismiss Cohen’s book as just an opportunity for him to make a lot of money. And, of course, Michael Cohen is a convicted felon who spent time in prison for some of the crimes he committed while working for Trump, including lying to Congress and campaign finance violations (remember the payment to Stormy Daniels?). So, why should anyone believe anything he has to say? Let me first point out that Michael Cohen has considerable wealth so, while the money from the book I’m sure is welcome, he wasn’t going to be destitute without it. Secondly, Cohen admits freely to lying to support and defend Trump. The fact is, much of what Cohen has written has been corroborated and even if only a third of it is true, it is still a damning indictment of the President. However, everything he has written is consistent with all of the other accounts of those who have been close to Trump. And the portrait painted by all of these accounts is of a man who is a racist, misogynist, egomaniac, completely amoral, who lies, cheats, bullies, belittles and manipulates people as easily as most of us breathe.
Cohen provides an account of the whole saga of trying to get a Trump Tower built in Moscow, the whole Stormy Daniels issue and other sordid details about some of Trump’s dalliances including one particularly disgusting account involving Trump and the Agalarovs (Russian oligarchs involved with the Miss Universe pageant when held in Russia) at a Las Vegas night club. It is still difficult for me to understand how the evangelical vote is solidly in Trump’s corner given his consistent amoral behavior over his entire life. Talk about making a Faustian bargain!
I thought one of the most interesting and instructive stories was about how a poll was rigged by Michael Cohen with complete support from Trump. In 2014, CNBC was conducting an online poll to determine the 25 most influential business people alive to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the network. When Cohen first looked into it, Trump was 187 out of 200. Trump was seriously thinking about running for president at the time so this result was completely unacceptable to him. Cohen got to work, hired one of his contacts with IT expertise and set him to work. By the time the poll ‘closed’, Trump was 9th ![The only reason it wasn’t higher was because they thought it would look suspicious – duh!] It was all bullshit and was the result of the manipulation by an IT expert. Trump was happy and that was all that counted. Just because he had cheated to get that result was irrelevant.
I thought that story was particularly relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today. The poll back in 2014 was prior to Trump being a candidate for president let alone actually holding the office, but he sanctioned cheating because he is obsessed with winning and having his ego stroked. Now, he is President of the United States, is up for reelection and is trailing in the polls. If he was willing to cheat in a poll that didn’t matter, what do think he is capable of to try to win this election?
I see everything that is going on in the leadup to the election – Dejoy mucking up things at the US Postal Service; an all-out assault on the integrity of mail-in voting; reports on the coronavirus being manipulated; intelligence reports being modified to match Trump’s narrative and the refusal of the DNI to brief Congress on election security issues – and I put that together with everything I have read about Trump and I really get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I don’t think there is any way in hell that Trump will win the popular vote. However, I can imagine many scenarios in which he and his minions will litigate and cheat their way into another Electoral College victory. He is a desperate man – a desperate amoral man – who is obsessed with winning.
Trump was desperate to keep Michael Cohen from publishing his book and undertook a huge legal fight which ultimately involved his toady, Attorney General Barr at the DOJ. After reading the book, it is not surprising at all why he tried so hard to keep the book from being published. In a recent post, I asked the question, “Why is Trump so desperate to stay in office?” Michael Cohen, who is much more knowledgeable about Trump’s activities than I, validated exactly what I thought and wrote in a previous post. In his words:
“The reason the President wanted a new head prosecutor in the Southern District [New York], I knew better than anyone, was so that while in office, he could arrange to be federally indicted. In the event he loses the election in November, he could then pardon himself, as he’s long claimed to be his right. The reason behind that unprecedented and serpentine thinking was that Trump knows perfectly well that he is guilty of the same crimes that resulted in my conviction and incarceration. He also knows that I would be a star witness in that case, and my book a fundamental piece of evidence for his guilt.
Without immunity from prosecution granted to the president, Trump will also almost certainly face New York State criminal charges. He would likely be convicted on both the Federal and State charges and face serious prison time. That is Donald Trump’s greatest fear in life, believe me, and if he fails to get reelected, that will be his fate – and he knows it – so silencing me was an essential part of his overall plan to evade the law and avoid that outcome.”1
Trump is in a corner and you know what they say about a cornered animal. Make no mistake about it, this is going to get really ugly.
- Disloyal: A Memoir, Michael Cohen, Skyhorse Publishing, 2020
Another good article. With all this information out on Trump you would think some of Trump supporters would agree. I have never seen such a large portion of our population that have been brainwashed towards unquestioned loyalty. Of course, it happened in Germany so it could happen here.