As U.S. President Donald Trump seeks reelection, his ride isn't going smooth. If the Coronavirus pandemic and nation-wide protests against police violence were already bothering Trump, he has had to deal with his former aides coming up with tell-all books that are defamatory.
Even his niece Mary Trump has published a book taking a dig at Trump. But now, Trump's former disgraced attorney Michael Cohen is cashing in on his memoir which contains the President's racist behavior and hatred for former President Barack Obama.
Cohen is serving a three-year sentence for nine counts of federal crime that includes tax evasion, campaign-finance violation and lying to Congress. But even then, he has been able to complete his book 'Disloyal: A Memoir' which is set to hit the shelves on Tuesday, September 8. In the book, he has labeled Trump as "a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man." Washington Post and CNN had obtained advanced copies of the book.
Faux-Bama
During the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Elections, Trump publicly questioned Obama's birthplace. Cohen in his book has said Trump didn't stop there. He privately called Obama a "Manchurian candidate" who got his Harvard degree due to "f***ing affirmative action."
According to Cohen, Trump was fixated on America's only African-American President and he took his hatred to the next level, hiring an actor to play 'Faux-Bama' while he "ritualistically belittled" him and then "fired him."
Although Cohen didn't share the name of the actor or the date when it took place, he included a photograph where Trump could be seen sitting behind a desk facing an African-American man who was wearing an American flag pin. Trump's desk even had two books with one 'Obama' written in large letters.
Trump's Alleged Racist Behavior
According to Cohen, Trump didn't care for minority votes during the 2016 Presidential Election. Trump allegedly said that minorities were not his people and he would "never get the Hispanic vote" as "like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for Trump."
Cohen went on to describe Trump's racist attitude. The President has a "low opinion of black folks", he says. "Tell me one country run by a black person that isn't a s***hole. They are all complete f***ing toilets," Trump allegedly said when Cohen was still on Trump's good books.
Cohen also wrote that Trump didn't see former South African President Nelson Mandela as a real leader who he could respect. Mandela passed away in 2013 and is known for his social activism and works toward eliminating social and racial division in South Africa. But Cohen claimed Trump allegedly said, "Mandela f***ed the whole country up. Now it's a s***hole. F*** Mandela. He was no leader."
Love for Putin and Russia
Trump, instead, loves the way Vladimir Putin runs his country, claims Cohen. "Locking up your political enemies, criminalizing dissent, terrifying or bankrupting the free press through libel lawsuits" are what Trump's all-encompassing vision.
However, Cohen claimed that Trump and his campaign officials did not collude with Russia during the 2016 Elections. Instead, it was a shared interest to malign Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton that led to email leaks. "What appeared to be collusion was really a confluence of shared interests in harming Hillary Clinton in any way possible, up to and including interfering in the American election," Cohen wrote.
But even after that, Trump himself didn't think he could win the Presidential race in 2016. Trump was cozying up to Putin for his own benefit — Moscow's Trump Tower project. But as he won the election and became the President, he hinted at changing U.S. sanctions against Russia. "The Boss was trying to nudge the Moscow Trump Tower project along," Cohen wrote.
In addition, Cohen believes Trump had ties with Putin prior to his presidency. In 2008, Trump sold a Palm Beach mansion for $95 million to a Russian named Dmitry Rybolovlev. Trump allegedly told Cohen later that he believed the real buyer was Putin.
Views on Media
However, Cohen has also reserved a negative view of media as his former boss does. "Donald Trump's presidency is a product of the free press," Cohen said. "Not free as in freedom of expression, I mean free as unpaid for. Rallies broadcast live, tweets, press conferences, idiotic interviews, 24-7 wall-to-wall coverage, all without spending a penny. The free press gave America Trump."
He believes Trump would win his reelection bid against Democrat Joe Biden the same way again. "Right, left, moderate, tabloid, broadsheet, television, radio, Internet, Facebook — that is who elected Trump and might well elect him again," Cohen wrote in his book.
While Cohen often described himself as a "fixer" for Trump in the book, he expectedly didn't get the White House's blessings. In a statement to Washington Post, Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "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."
