{"id":221446,"date":"2026-08-21T11:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/from-predator-to-conman-how-michael-cohen-has-described-trump-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:01:14","slug":"from-predator-to-conman-how-michael-cohen-has-described-trump-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/from-predator-to-conman-how-michael-cohen-has-described-trump-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018predator\u2019 to \u2018conman\u2019: how Michael Cohen has described Trump – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

President\u2019s one-time \u2018attack dog\u2019 became his fierce critic \u2013 but now Cohen says he has forgiven his former boss
Donald Trump<\/a> has given a radio interview to none other than Michael Cohen<\/a>, his former longtime personal fixer turned fierce critic, after an apparent reconciliation set the stage for their first public conversation in eight years.
Cohen once had such a tight relationship with the US president that he described himself back in the day as his \u201cattack dog with a law license\u201d, but later became the star witness in Trump\u2019s 2024 criminal trial over his hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump was found guilty<\/a> on 34 counts of falsifying business records in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election.
Their exchange, recorded on Thursday and broadcast on 77WABC, amounted to an extraordinary twist in the pair\u2019s relationship.
In an excerpt of the interview released on Thursday, Cohen referred to Trump as \u201cboss\u201d and the president praised his former lawyer for having \u201crecanted everything you said\u201d.
Cohen reminded Trump of his combative cable news appearances in defense of his candidacy in 2016. Trump responded: \u201cYou were a good advocate and then they weaponized you like nobody\u2019s ever been weaponized, like few have been.\u201d
\u201cWell, maybe just you and I, sir,\u201d Cohen interjected.
\u201cYeah, me too,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut they weaponized you. They weaponized a lot of people. And I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said, and that\u2019s a big, that\u2019s a big thing that you did, that\u2019s a very big thing.\u201d
Trump went on to claim that Cohen had been unfairly threatened with jail by the Manhattan and New York state prosecutors who used his testimony to convict Trump of campaign finance violations and fraud.
The full interview will air on Sunday.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced<\/a> to three years in prison on charges<\/a> related to hush-money payments on Trump\u2019s behalf to help conceal the affair with Daniels, including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud, as well as lying to Congress. He spent more than a year behind bars and the rest of his sentence in home confinement. He was also disbarred in New York. He later started a podcast and wrote<\/a> books<\/a> devoted<\/a> to fierce criticism of Trump.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Cohen said he had applied for a pardon from Trump after an initial request for clemency was denied by Joe Biden.
Cohen\u2019s tune changed shortly after Trump returned to office, stating<\/a> publicly in January last year that he had felt \u201cpressured and coerced\u201d by federal prosecutors during the hush-money trial.
Here is Cohen, in his own words, on Trump through the years:
\u201cI\u2019m the guy who stops the leaks. I\u2019m the guy who protects the president and the family. I\u2019m the guy who would take a bullet for the president,\u201d Cohen told<\/a> Vanity Fair in September 2017, recounting a time when former Trump White House official Steve Bannon had accused him of leaking to a reporter during the campaign.
A year later, Cohen described his loyalty to Trump as misplaced, saying in a statement<\/a> at his December 2018 sentencing: \u201cMy weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to Donald Trump, a blind loyalty that led me to choose a path of darkness.\u201d
He went on: \u201cI have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen I deeply admired. I know now, in fact, there is little to be admired.\u201d
Cohen added: \u201cI take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to, the personal ones to me and those involving the president of the United States of America \u2026 It was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.\u201d
Then, in an explosive testimony<\/a> before the US House oversight committee in February 2019, Cohen began his opening statement: \u201cThe last time I appeared before Congress, I came to protect Mr Trump. Today, I am here to tell the truth about Mr Trump.\u201d
He went on: \u201cI am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr Trump\u2019s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. I am ashamed because I know what Mr Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.\u201d
Cohen also suggested that the US could face an existential peril as a constitutional democracy, predicting: \u201cGiven my experience working for Mr Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.\u201d
Sign up to Breaking News US<\/span>
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
In his closing remarks, he added: \u201cMy loyalty to Mr Trump cost me everything \u2026 and I will not sit back, say nothing and allow him to do the same to the country.\u201d
In his 2020 tell-all about Trump and the 2016 election, Disloyal, Cohen said: \u201cI knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man \u2026 a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a conman.\u201d
In October 2022, Cohen described<\/a> watching footage of the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack as \u201ca heartbreak\u201d. He went on to warn that Trump \u201cdoes not want to be president of the United States \u2013 he wants to be an autocrat, supreme leader, dictator\u201d.
In an episode of Cohen\u2019s podcast in 2023, he thanked the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, for bringing charges against Trump. \u201cI truly fucking hope that this man ends up in prison,\u201d Cohen said<\/a>. He said that it would not bring back the time he spent in prison, but added: \u201cYou better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to my family.\u201d
Testifying in 2024, Cohen was asked during a fiery cross-examination whether he had referred to Trump as a \u201cboorish cartoon misogynist\u201d and a \u201cCheeto-dusted cartoon villain\u201d on his podcast, Mea Culpa.
\u201cSounds like something I would say,\u201d he quipped from the stand, with Trump seated nearby in the Manhattan courtroom.
In May 2024, Cohen reflected on his years working for Trump, telling<\/a> the hush-money trial: \u201cI regret doing things for him that I should not have. To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he asked me to do, I violated my moral compass. And I suffered the penalty \u2013 as has my family.\u201d
In his 2022 book, Revenge, Cohen explored how Trump weaponized the Department of Justice in his first administration to target political opponents and critics for his own benefit.
He revisited those warnings in July 2024, saying<\/a>: \u201cDon\u2019t discount what he\u2019s telling you. He\u2019s already foreshadowing what he intends to do. And when you say: \u2018That\u2019s not possible. He won\u2019t do it. He can\u2019t do it\u2019 \u2013 he\u2019s already done it to me. It was a practice run.\u201d
Then came the about-face. In a Substack post<\/a> on Thursday, Cohen confirmed reports that Trump would appear on his radio show, writing: \u201cPeople keep asking me the same question: How is this possible? \u2026 The answer is actually much simpler than people want it to be. We forgave \u2026 Forgiveness doesn\u2019t require amnesia. It requires the courage to stop allowing yesterday to dictate tomorrow.\u201d
He went on: \u201cSometimes the most extraordinary act of courage isn\u2019t winning the fight. It\u2019s deciding the fight doesn\u2019t have to last forever. And sometimes, after everything has burned down, forgiveness is the only thing capable of building something again. This evening, you\u2019ll hear whether we can.\u201d
Robert Mackey contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President\u2019s one-time \u2018attack dog\u2019 became his fierce critic \u2013 but now Cohen says he has forgiven his former bossDonald Trump has given a radio interview to none other than Michael Cohen, his former longtime personal fixer turned fierce critic, after an apparent reconciliation set the stage for their first public conversation in eight years.Cohen once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}