Foreword: The Real Donald Trump
In February 2019, before Cohen was to testify about Donald Trump before Congress, Cohen faced hundreds of death threats from Trump followers after Trump tweeted that Cohen was a rat as well as other angry accusations against him and his family.
Cohen claims that Trump colluded with the Russians, but not
in a sophisticated way. He knew that the Mueller investigation was not a witch
hunt. He tried to pursue a major real estate deal in
Trump has a million acquaintances, but no true friends. He has spent his whole life avoiding and evading responsibility for his life. He has crushed or cheated all who stood in his way. Cohen played a big role in making that happen for him. He was Trump’s liar, spin doctor, thug, and intimidator.
Trump has always needed fixers and lawyers to break the law and fight dirty on his behalf. Roy Cohn, Cohen and now Giuliani, Barr, Kushner, and Pompeo are willing to distort the truth, break the law, risk jail time, and ruin their careers for Trump.
If Trump loses reelection in 2020, he will not go peacefully because he will have to face accountability for his criminal behavior and face jail time. He projects his sins and crimes onto others because he believes everyone is as corrupt, shameless, and ruthless as he is. He is immersed in a tangle of fraud, scams, and lawlessness, and his minions will do anything to lie, distract, and cover it up. What the public knows is only the tip of the iceberg.
1 – The Apprentice
When Cohen had an opportunity to work for Trump in 2006, he was thrilled. He considered The Art of the Deal a masterpiece. He felt he had the best of Trump’s qualities: deal-driven, relentless, a hard worker, never afraid, and prepared to be brutal and heartless in pursuit of his ambitions. He already had wealth, but he wanted it all: power, the good life, public acclaim, big deals, fast cars, private planes, and the excess and glamour and zest for life that Trump seemed to personify so effortlessly.
2 – The Fixer
Cohen was mesmerized by Trump’s celebrity and power, and like a cult member, would do anything for him, including take a bullet. The sheer tornado that surrounded Trump was addictive. The energy, action, and chaos was intoxicating. Cohen was obsessed with Trump because he made him feel excited and alive. He was fully devoted to Trump, worshipping him, seeing him as his success and salvation. He felt like he belonged to something or someone important. All he had to do was be loyal and obey unquestioningly and Trump would invite him into a different reality of wonder, excitement, power, intrigue, and adulation. Cohen leapt at the chance to be Trump’s personal lawyer and became a willing participant in a fantasy that heightened his senses and sense of self.
3 – The El Caribe
(Nothing consequential)
4 – Laura
(Nothing consequential)
5 – Catch and Twist
When sexual assault cases came against Trump, like in the case of Jill Harth, Cohen was instructed to “catch and kill.” He was to find, stop, kill, bury, or twist and distort beyond recognition any story that could be harmful to Trump’s brand. These women were to be paid off, have favors done for them, or threatened into public statements of denial or silence.
In the 1980s, Trump had a fake spokesperson named John Barron who shared with the tabloids stories of Trump’s sexual prowess and the beautiful women he’d dated. In the 1990s Trump created an alter ego named Johnny Miller who was actually him disguising his voice. He would call tabloids to brag about his wealth and sexual conquests. Keeping his name in the papers was good for the brand. Now Cohen was Trump’s spokesman to the media.
When it came to being on Forbes’ richest people list, Cohen was instructed to inflate Trump’s wealth. When it came to paying taxes, he was instructed to deem his properties worthless and at a loss to avoid paying taxes and to get refunds.
Believing that Trump was a billionare who could afford any deal that came him way, Cohen realized during the 2008 financial crisis that Trump’s career as a real estate developer was over. He had far less money than Cohen imagined. He focused on licensing deals for his brand and endorsed just about anything.
Trump showed no interest in any conversation in which he was not the center of attention, never shared the joy of anyone else’s success, often bragging that he was more successful instead, and saw life as a zero sum competition in which he always had to win.
When Trump went on an angry tirade against Cohen, he belittled, mocked, shouted, and made fun of the smallest aspect of his appearance or manner. His form of leadership revolved around anger, fury, rage and chaotic blaming and shaming.
He often publicly mocked, insulted, and embarrassed his son Don, Jr. Don was happy as a bartender, being far from his dad, but Donald gave him an ultimatum to come work for him or be cut off entirely—disowned and disinherited. He now does what he hates—real estate, office politics, and enduring the circus of his dad’s life to avoid being exiled.
6 – Trump for President (Part One)
Since 2007, Cohen encouraged Trump to run for president, believing he could cut through political correctness, put America first, fix the infrastructure, stop needless wars in the Middle East, and improve our international trade agreements. Cohen knew Trump was a liar, delusional, and a manipulator, but he was a visionary with a no nonsense attitude and charisma to attract voters. He did very well with working class fans of The Apprentice and WWE wrestling. Cohen also wanted Trump to run and win because he knew it would bring him power too. “I wanted to be able to crush my enemies and rule the world.”
Though Cohen had never heard Trump use the N-word, he recalls Trump talking about a contestant on The Apprentice named Kwame Jackson, saying, “I’d never let that black fag win.” Trump admired Don King, Mike Tyson, and Oprah and was friendly to many African American people, but only rich celebrities he respected and considered in his peer group of the rich and famous.
When Obama was elected, Cohen described Trump’s racism as a
reactionary and unhinged “Archie Bunker racism” as he would refer to Obama as
Barack Hussein Obama, with a
disdainful emphasis on his middle name. Nelson Mandella was also an object of
contempt for Trump. “Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a
shithole,” Trump said, particularly of
Watching the inauguration of Obama in 2008, Trump was incensed. When Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, he was unhinged. He ranted and raved, mocking every aspect of Obama—the way he talked, walked, and dressed—and couldn’t understand America’s adulation for him. He thought Obama “acting presidential” and giving good speeches was an act, making him a phony, that Obama got into Harvard through affirmative action because he wasn’t smart, believed he was born in Kenya, and that he was a Manchurian candidate—a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power. At one point, Trump hired an Obama actor to sit a chair in his office so he could rant at him and fire him. But the truth was he deeply envied Obama’s power and position and wanted it.
Cohen showed Trump a poll in 2011 that said 26% of Republican voters would support him as president, telling him that that was unprecedented for someone who wasn’t a politician and not even running. Trump, excited, asked Cohen to find out how to make it happen. The timing was perfect in his age, wealth, and celebrity and he believed he could run the country better than Obama. If he lost, he said, it would be the greatest infomercial for his brand in the history of politics. It was a win-win.
Trump polled highly with conservatives because of his
positions: pro-gun, anti-abortion, low taxes, a trade war with
Trump started reading populist publications like Breitbart and World News where he picked up more conspiracies, adding to his arsenal the belief that Obama wasn’t a Christian, but a secret Muslim.
Trump called a reporter and told him he had investigators in
As Trump demanded that Obama’s school records be released,
he had Cohen insure that his own never be made public, because though Trump was
competitive, he didn’t compare with Obama. Cohen called the
People believe that Obama roasting Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner was the moment Trump hated Obama and decided to run, but Cohen says that not even close to true. Trump hated Obama and decided to run long before that.
In 2012, political operative and conspiracy-monger Roger Stone entered the picture. Trump described him as crazy, devoid of moral purpose, willing to do anything in service to himself or any politician he supported, always and only because it would benefit him personally. For Trump, these are good qualities to have. Years previous, Stone taught Trump to always be on the attack and never back down, just as his old lawyer Roy Cohn told him to never show weakness or apologize—when attacked, attack back harder. “Roger’s a fucking pervert,” Trump said, knowing he was bisexual and that he and his wife were swingers, “but he can help me. He’s the dirty trickster. He’s the best trickster money can buy.”
How did Trump, a man with no personal piety or interest in church or religion in any way gain the interest of evangelicals? Cohen was a neighbor of Paula White, a televangelist who had known Trump for a decade. After seeing her on TV, Trump invited her over to give him private Bible studies in the only version of Christianity that could appeal to him—the prosperity gospel. White is self-interested, consumed with lust for worldly wealth and rewards, and with two divorces, a bankruptcy, and a senate financial investigation on her record, she was the preacher for him. It helped that she was blonde and beautiful. Paula White wanted to set up a meeting between Trump and a number of evangelical leaders—Jerry Falwell, Jr., pastor Darrell Scott, and Creflo Dollar among them—to discuss his potential run for president and the spiritual dimensions of that.
When Trump was a kid, he attended Norman Vincent Peale’s
church in
They asked to lay hands on Trump and pray for him. Being a
germaphobe who didn’t like being touched, still he agreed. They prayed that God
would guide him to do his will for
Chatting with Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki, Cohen
discovered they were staying in
Trump didn’t run in 2012 for a number of reasons. His
polling numbers dropped to 8% after Obama released his birth certificate but
Trump continued to push the birther conspiracy. Americans got tired of that. Plus,
he had business concerns to take care of, like trying to strike a deal in
7 – Stormy Weather (Part One)
A story emerged that porn star Stormy Daniels had sex with
Donald Trump in a hotel at a golf charity event in
8 – That’s What Friends Are For
Cohen explains that Trump reads the news to find weaknesses in businesses and families and offers to “help” them, but in the end takes everything they have. Cohen details how he helped Trump screw small businesses and contractors in 2011 by inventing frivolous grievances and bullying and threatening them. Cohen and other staffers didn’t mind doing this dirty work for Trump because if they didn’t, they’d face Trump’s rage and be fired immediately. Similarly, those surrounding him in the White House and right wing TV pundits rubber stamp Trump’s lies and delusions so they aren’t ousted from his inner circle. The buck never stops with Trump when something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault. He simply demanded that whatever the problem was, his fixers fix it.
9 – The End of the World
Trump has an eye for sycophants, yes men, and loyal soldiers and used his charisma to draw them into his inner circle. Cohen was one of them. He tells more stories of refusing to pay contractors and ruining their lives. Trump never expressed regret or remorse, but saw screwing others over as winning. Every time Trump praised Cohen for a job well done, Cohen got sadistic glee from doing the wrong thing and hurting people. He knew that lying before Congress to defend Trump was wrong, but he liked it.
Concerning the Miss Universe Pageant, Cohen claims that Trump behaved like an adolescent teen, picking out his favorite “piece of ass” and bragging that he could have sex with any one of them he wanted because he was a celebrity. He bragged about going backstage to watch them change. He came from an era of the Rat Pack of the 1950s where women weren’t respected, but treated as playthings for men. Trump told Cohen that if Melania ever caught him cheating and wanted a divorce, he wouldn’t be upset or hurt. “I can always get another wife. That’s no problem for me. If she wants to go, so be it.” She was just another transactional relationship like everyone else in his life. He was more concerned about how much she would take from him in a divorce.
“Trump’s grandiose sense of self-importance, his need for constant praise, his exploitation of others without guilt or shame was the classic definition of a narcissistic sociopath.” (181) Trump projected his worst traits onto others, believing they were all as bad as he was, asking Cohen how often he cheated on his wife, and didn’t believe him when he said never.
Cohen recounts a time Trump saw a woman on a tennis court and said, “Look at that piece of ass, I’d love some of that,” not knowing she was Cohen’s fifteen-year-old daughter. He complimented her figure, asked her for a kiss, and told her to watch out because in a few years he’d be dating some of her friends.
10 – How to Fix a Poll
In 2014 CNBC ran a poll to determine the twenty-five most influential business people alive today. Trump ranked 187 of 200 and was furious. Cohen had a tech friend who suggested buying 200,000 IP addresses for $15,000 and using them to move him up to #9 by the time the poll concluded, which they succeeded in doing. Trump printed out the results and bragged to all of his friends who fed his ego in return, as if he really believed he’d earned the spot. But there was a disclaimer on the poll saying CNBC had the right to remove any name they wanted for any reason, and Trump’s name was promptly removed. Furious, Trump had Cohen threaten a law suit, but nothing could be done. When the man who bought the IP addresses and ran the scam billed Trump for $15,000, he refused to pay him because he didn’t get the results he wanted.
Jerry Falwell, Jr. called Cohen needing another favor. While
vacationing in
11 – Trump for President (Part 2)
Trump decided to fund his own campaign on the cheap, knowing he would get tons of free publicity. Cohen wants readers not to miss this: the media won Trump the election, covering his every move, speech, and interview for free. Right, left, moderate, tabloid, broadsheet, radio, television, internet, and Facebook all gave him free press. Trump was pure chaos all the time, appealing to something primal in us, and like a car accident, we couldn’t look away. When Trump was waning, he played the media by using attack tweets, saying something racist or insulting to make sure there was always something for the media to fixate on.
In June 2015, as Trump announced his candidacy with an incoherent, rambling speech full of bragging, lies, and racism, the Trump team looked at each other in disbelief, asking if Trump really wanted to win. They cringed and couldn’t believe he was saying what he was saying. But after the speech, everyone in his circle praised him, told him the speech was great, and inflated his ego. As usual, no one told him the truth. Disgusted, Cohen’s wife and kids begged him to stop working for Trump.
Ivanka and Don, Jr. were mortified and horrified. They worried that Trump was irreparably destroying his brand, as people stopped doing business with him. They begged Cohen to convince him to drop out of the race before the business was destroyed.
The media condemned Trump that night as a joke, a racist, and a bully, but he tapped into the resentments of some Americans: the undereducated, reactionary white folks and conservative and Christian men and women who were sick of political correctness, illegal immigration, globalization, climate change, gay marriage, abortion, the loss of American jobs overseas, and disregard for God. Trump was their advocate and champion.
When Cohen asked Trump to ease up on the anti-Hispanic rhetoric, Trump reportedly said he didn’t care because he would never get the Hispanic vote anyway. “Like the blacks, they’re too stupid to vote for Trump. They’re not my people.”
Trump pretended not to be racist and anti-immigration when around those who questioned him on these matters just as he pretended to be pious for Paula White and a room full of evangelicals. Cohen knew Trump had what it took to be president because he could be deceitful and disingenuous without shame. Behind closed doors, he told Cohen he stood by his comments about Mexicans because they are true.
During a debate, Fox News personality Megyn Kelly asked Trump about his misogynistic comments about women. After commenting on Rosie O’Donnel and feeling attacked by Kelly, Trump got on the radio the next day and said Kelly had blood coming out of her eyes and out of her “wherever.” Now she was in hiding with her kids as Trump supporters appeared at her house threatening her. Roger Ailes from Fox called Trump and told him he had to come on her show and make this right so they would leave her alone. Trump agreed to come her show only if the questions were softballs and pre-written by Cohen. His supporters would see them together and stand down. Still, Trump had no sympathy for her. “She came after me. If you come after me, I come after you ten times harder.”
12 –
People keep wondering why Trump admires Putin as much as he
does. The answer is simple. He envies him because he is rich and powerful.
Trump was impressed that Putin controlled 25% of
There was no organized or direct collusion between Trump and Putin. Putin disliked Hillary Clinton because of negative comments she made about him. Putin wanted to interfere with our democracy and help Trump win, and this caused Trump no unease. Trump reasoned that we interfere in other people’s elections and overthrow their countries too, so it’s fair game.
When American Washington
Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in
Trump didn’t expect to win the election, so praising Putin meant that his channels would remain open for business dealings when he lost. Like Putin, neither of them cared about their countries, but only their personal wealth and power at the expense of their countries.
Trump cares nothing for the wellbeing of Midwestern white working class folks. He is a con man who pretends to care about guns, abortion, and God for votes because his base is his path to power.
The chapter details trying to get Trump Tower Moscow built. Putin had to approve it, so Trump praised him. He used campaign money to make money for himself to fund that project. When there was little progress on the tower, Cohen suggested pulling the plug.
As Cohen sat in Trump’s office, Don, Jr. came in and said, “The meeting is all set.” Trumps said, “Okay, good, let me know.” A Russian lawyer was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
14 – Hurricane Stormy (Part 2)
Cohen details looking for racially diverse people to support Trump so he could transform Trump’s white nationalism into the image of a God-fearing, open-minded, and inclusive leader. Cohen did this by courting black Christians like pastor Darrell Scott. Cohen’s job was to create an upside down Alice in Wonderland world where people doubted their own eyes and ears. Cohen did this simply by saying any insinuation that Trump was a racist, sexist, bigot, xenophobe, Islamaphobe, demagogue, narcissist, anti-Hispanic, and anti-Semitic were lies from the disgusting liberal mainstream media.
By spring of 2016, it was down to Trump and Cruz in the primaries. Cohen decided to create fake news for the National Inquirer. More than a friend and supporter of Trump, David Pecker, head of the paper, was a sycophant, supplicant, and propagandist for Trump. People worry about Russia but ignore the role the National Inquirer played in helping spread disinformation to help Trump win—like printing a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald standing next to a man whose face is hard to make out and alleging that it was Ted Cruz’s father, making him to be a Cuban co-conspirator in the Kennedy assassination.
The Enquirer ran
the story on Cruz’s father when the
If any candidate began rising in the polls, The National Inquirer ran conspiracies against them in the headlines for hundreds of millions of Americans who saw the headlines at grocery checkout counters. The mainstream media would then write disapproving articles about these made up stories, giving them exposure, which gave Trump more free press.
Whenever Trump refused to act presidential and became petty, like comparing Cruz’s wife to Melania, the media would become aghast, but his base loved it. His supporters reveled in how juvenile he was, especially if it upset the left and mainstream media.
They invented stories about Rubio having a love child, a mistress, a cocaine connection, a secret gay past, his wife Jeanette having a lurid past, and their marriage being on the rocks. The message behind this disinformation campaign was if you were an evangelical Christian or family values person, you should run from Rubio and—the irony—vote for Trump.
Cohen noticed that every time Trump held a rally and it was on TV, everyone behind him was white. He told Trump he needed more diversity. Soon a few carefully placed black supporters began appearing behind him on TV. This was not to win black voters, but to ensure his base, like white Christian woman who would hold their nose and vote for him, that he wasn’t racist while openly using racist rhetoric.
Once Trump won the nomination and bragged that he liked winning with women, women with whom he’d had affairs started coming forward, like Playboy model Karen McDougal. Pecker paid $150,000 for the story to squash it. Trump had to pay Pecker and Pecker had to pay McDougal by hiding it so no one would find out. Pecker paid McDougal, but every time he tried to get his money from Trump, he stalled. Trump stiffed him.
Trump personified the phrase typical of narcissists: “accusations are confessions.” If Trump accused you of lying, cheating, or stealing, you can best bet it’s because that’s what he was doing.
Cohen was shocked that Trump was able to get away with so much and the media never looked for it, but instead combed through Hillary’s past and dealings in great detail and made her answer for it. He could only surmise that this was because they believed Hillary would win, so was the more important person to focus on.
Cohen was made aware of the Access Hollywood tape where Trump bragged that he could sexually assault women because he’s a celebrity—the infamous “grab ‘em by the pussy” quote. When that blew over, porn actress Stormy Daniels, who had already been paid to have her story squashed, wanted to sell the story of her affair with Trump. Two weeks before the election, now was the time to capitalize on it, believing that Trump would lose and her story be worthless after the election.
Trump didn’t want to pay it, but considered it a deal compared to what he would have lost in a divorce to Melania. He bragged to Cohen that this fans would think it was cool that he slept with a porn star. He knew Pecker wouldn’t buy her story and squash it because he still hadn’t paid him for the McDougal deal. After clearing it with Trump, it was agreed that $130,000 would be paid to Daniels by Cohen personally.
15 – Election Night
The night Trump won the election, Cohen was given a VIP to the event but didn’t sit with Trump in the suites with the others. He knew something was off, that Trump was distancing himself from him. Expecting his bonus to be the usual $500,000 with an extra $150,00 for paying Stormy Daniels to keep silent, he will pissed to find that his bonus was only $50,000. The excuse was that the company lost money that year due to the distraction of the election. After complaining, he got $420,000 and the job of being personal attorney of the president. He was reimbursed for Daniels in the form of fake legal fees.
Cohen makes a case that everything in the Steele Dossier is
false. An anonymous person called wanting $20 million for the footage of Trump
with prostitutes peeing on the bed the Obamas had slept in, but refused to let
Cohen see and verify it first. The dossier clamed Cohen went to
Trump asked Cohen what he thought of the Muslim travel ban. Cohen said he hated it. Trump said it was Bannon and Miller’s idea and they’ll fix it the next time around.
16 – Typhoon Stormy (Part Three)
In January 2018 the Wall Street Journal ran a story saying that Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 through a company called Essential Consulting. He went on a media tour defending Trump while Daniels went on a media tour promising to share details about Trump’s penis size. Cohen and Trump got on the phone with Melania and tried to lie to her about it, Trump acting shocked that Cohen hushed the story with money from his own pocket, as if he didn’t know. She knew they were lying, so changed the subject. She understood that this came with being married to Trump.
Soon after, the FBI raided Cohen’s home and office. He didn’t know what they were looking for or why they were there. He called Trump. “They’re coming after us,” Trump said. “This is all part of the witch hunt. Stay strong, I have your back. You’re going to be fine.” That’s the last time they ever spoke.
17 – The Conviction Machine
Trump over next few weeks made public statements saying
Cohen wasn’t really his lawyer, just a low level PR guy, putting distance
between them. Trump, Jared, Ivanka and Cohen entered a joint defense using
Cohen’s lawyer. Trump stiffed him on the legal fees. Still, Cohen lied and
stayed on message on TV and before Congress: this is a witch hunt and Trump has
no dealings with
Cohen pleaded guilty to five tax evasion charges to protect his wife from going to trial and possibly facing prison time. He was sentenced to three years in jail.
18 – Otisville Federal Satellite Camp
Cohen recounts his time in prison and getting cease and desist letters from Trump’s organization forbidding him to write this book.
“Please remember what I testified to Congress, the second time: There is a serious danger that Donald Trump will not leave office easily, and there is a real chance of not having a peaceful transition. When he jokes about running again in 2024 and gets a crowd to chant ‘Trump 2024,’ he’s not joking. Trump never jokes. You now have all the information you need to decide in November.” (360)
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