Michael Cohen claims in his new book that Donald Trump repeatedly insulted minorities during his 2016 campaign and dismissed them as “not my people,” according to an excerpt of Cohen’s book published by The Washington Post late Saturday.
Cohen’s Disloyal: A Memoir describes how Trump also said he’d “never get the Hispanic vote” because “like the Blacks, they’re too stupid to vote for Trump.” Trump’s “low opinion of all Black folks” focused most viciously on former President Barack Obama, according to Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer who is serving a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations.
The Commander in Chief reportedly attributed Obama’s admission to Columbia University and Harvard Law School to nothing more than “f--king affirmative action.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Of Obama’s presidency, he was quoted as saying, “Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a sh--hole. They are all complete f--king toilets.”
Cohen claims Trump went so far as to hire an Obama impersonator to appear in a video where Trump “ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him,” according to CNN, which published a photo from Cohen’s book that shows Trump seated behind a desk with a book in front of him that appears to show Obama’s name, and a Black man in front of the desk wearing a black suit and American flag pin.
Cohen also claims in the book that Trump’s adulation for Russia’s Vladimir Putin during his 2016 campaign had more to do with money than anything else. According to Cohen, Trump was an outspoken admirer of Putin in a bid to ingratiate himself with the Russian leader, believing at that point that he would lose the election but still manage to befriend Putin and get close to his wealth.
His admiration for Putin also had nothing to do with politics or ideology. Rather, as Cohen claims, Trump was impressed with what he saw as Putin’s ability “to take over an entire nation and run it like it was his personal company — like the Trump Organization, in fact.”
Trump and the White House have hit back against Cohen’s claims by portraying him as a liar. Cohen was hit with a three-year prison sentence after taking a plea deal over illegal hush-money payments to two women that he said Trump instructed him to make.
In response to the newest claims from Cohen’s book revealed Saturday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany echoed previous statements by Team Trump on the matter.
“Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress. He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies,” McEnany was quoted telling the Post.
Cohen calls Trump “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.” He does not exempt himself from what he describes as Trump’s mafia-esque orbit, saying his own actions make him “one of Trump’s bad guys” and Trump’s “designated thug.”
According to Cohen, Trump also personally approved a National Enquirer smear of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). The tabloid reportedly concocted a photograph about how Cruz’s father was in the company of Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“It’s not real, right?” Trump asked Cohen.
“Looks real to me!” Cohen said. Trump laughed and demanded the picture appear on the Enquirer’s front page, according to the lawyer.
As The Daily Beast reported back in April, Trump became visibly agitated when he caught wind of Cohen's upcoming tell-all earlier this year. Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, sent a letter to Cohen in May, on behalf of the Trump Organization, demanding that he stop writing his book in light of the non-disclosure agreement he signed while working for Trump. Cohen was released from prison early due to the coronavirus pandemic, but remanded back into custody a few weeks later, a move he tied directly to Trump's bid to stop him from writing the book.
A judge agreed with him and ordered his release in July, ruling that his return to prison was “retaliatory” for his upcoming book.
