Trump: “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man”

News:

Michael Cohen has written a book about his relationship with the US president called: “The true story of the former personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump”. The forward to the book, which the Trump administration tried to block, was released yesterday.

Comment:

That is how Trump lived his life, and that is what he needed to be in order to win the US presidential election in 2016: “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.” Those were the words of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Thursday.

Cohen’s explosive revelations are due in full with the release of his book scheduled for September, two months before the 2020 presidential election.

A theme of the 2016 election that has dogged Trump to this day was the Russian interference and his alleged collusion with it. Cohen’s book pre-release claims are that: "Trump had colluded with the Russians, but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors. I also knew that the Mueller investigation was not a witch-hunt. Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything -- and I mean anything -- to 'win' has always been his business model and way of life."

Furthermore, according to Cohen, Trump "attempted to insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs. I know because I personally ran that deal and kept Trump and his children closely informed of all updates, even as the candidate blatantly lied to the American people saying, 'there's no Russian collusion, I have no dealings with Russia...there's no Russia.'"

Cohen’s book also exposes his lifelong business and personal corruptions: "I stiffed contractors on his behalf, ripped off his business partners, lied to his wife Melania to hide his sexual infidelities, and bullied and screamed at anyone who threatened Trump's path to power." He explains that his credibility to make such claims is due to his being the closest man to all of Trump’s dirty dealings: "Our cellphones had the same address books, our contacts so entwined, overlapping and intimate that part of my job was to deal with the endless queries and requests, however large or small, from Trump's countless rich and famous acquaintances."

He was given a three-year prison sentence for being the central figure in Trump’s webs of corruption after pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress and to multiple crimes, but was released early due to the Covid-19 crisis. However, his incarceration was briefly reinstated last month as the government retaliated against him for his planned book release. Fortunately for him, a judge upheld his appeal and he was released again soon after. Contrast Cohen’s privileged experience of US justice, however, with that of a black man whose life sentence in 1997 for the crime of stealing a pair of hedge clippers was upheld in July in the Louisiana Supreme Court!

If Cohen has had an easy time and is now set to cash in on his corrupt partnership with Trump through his ‘tell all’ book, what about Trump himself! Trump is above the law and continues to lie and cheat with impunity as long as his Party backs him.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Abdullah Robin