WASHINGTON—Michael Cohen said before the last presidential election that if Donald Trump ever returned to the White House, he would change his name and flee the country. Two years later, he invited his old boss onto his radio show instead.
Trump’s loyal onetime fixer turned loathed nemesis is once again cordial with the president he warned was unfit for office. The irony of the reconciliation isn’t lost on Cohen. The lead-in music to the interview: “Why Can’t We Be Friends”
WASHINGTON—Michael Cohen said before the last presidential election that if Donald Trump ever returned to the White House, he would change his name and flee the country. Two years later, he invited his old boss onto his radio show instead.
Trump’s loyal onetime fixer turned loathed nemesis is once again cordial with the president he warned was unfit for office. The irony of the reconciliation isn’t lost on Cohen. The lead-in music to the interview: “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War.
“They weaponized you. They weaponized a lot of people,” Trump told Cohen at the beginning of the conversation, adding that “I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said, and that’s a big thing that you did.” The former lawyer didn’t dispute that characterization from his old boss.
There was plenty of bad blood between the two men to overcome.
It was Cohen who served as the star witness in the successful 2023 New York criminal trial against Trump, testifying that the then-former president had falsified business records to hide a secret $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels. Inside the Manhattan courtroom, a stone-faced Trump listened in-person to the testimony of his former lawyer whom he subsequently, and repeatedly, condemned as a “liar” and a “rat.”
Until that point, it had been their first meeting in nearly half-a-decade. Swarmed by reporters as he left court, Cohen called it “a heck of a reunion.” The Thursday interview marks their first public conversation since their split in 2018. Cohen played a short preview of his interview with Trump on Thursday. The remainder is slated to be aired Sunday.
Cohen spent more than a year behind bars after pleading guilty in 2018 to tax and campaign-finance crimes and lying to Congress about Trump’s plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow, among other federal charges.
A legal bruiser and self-described “fix it guy,” Cohen worked for Trump for over a decade both before and during his time in politics, defending his boss on cable news and conveying legal threats in person. He once boasted of his willingness to “take a bullet” for Trump.
But the relationship began to fray in 2018 after federal agents raided Cohen’s home and legal offices in connection to then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. As legal bills began to mount and the White House attempted to distance Trump from Cohen, he reported feeling increasingly isolated and alone. He later entered a plea deal in the Southern District of New York and agreed to testify that the president had “reverse engineered” fraudulent estimates of his wealth, inspiring Trump’s permanent enmity.
After prison, Cohen capitalized on his new infamy as a reliable Trump critic, writing a bestselling book, “Disloyal: A Memoir,” and regularly condemning his former employer in media appearances as “a cheat” and “a mobster.”
The MAGA exile showed up at the 2024 Democratic National Convention to lend his support to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Asked if he would speak, Cohen said, “Only if they let me” and “of course I would.” He was never invited onstage.
After flipping on Trump, Cohen later flipped again, this time against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He wrote in a blog post earlier this year that he “felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony” to help secure a conviction against Trump.
Cohen landed an on-air gig at 770 WABC last month but only after billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, the owner of the Trump-friendly radio station, said publicly that he sought approval from the White House for the new hire. He quickly teased the possibility of hosting the president for an interview.
Before the Thursday interview, Cohen wrote on social media that he and the president “forgave” one another. He clarified, however, that “forgiveness doesn’t require amnesia.”
Cohen said he first reached out to Trump to make peace after hearing from an intermediary that the president regretted their fallout. Trump texted him back, Cohen said during a July radio interview with Catsimatidis, and said it was “actually time for us to meet.”
“We both knew the cost of this war,” Cohen said of their longstanding feud. “In that moment the ice between us, it didn’t just melt, it broke.” A senior White House official was unaware that the former lawyer had texted his old boss and said the two men had not interacted until their August conversation. In the lead up to the interview, Cohen said that he had met with Trump three times in the past year. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Cohen’s assertion.
Earlier, Cohen told CNN that he had submitted an application for a pardon to President Joe Biden but was denied. He said on Thursday that he has since resubmitted that application to the White House, rewriting the cover letter and “removing the name of President Joe Biden and inserting the name President Donald Trump.”
Once one of the most trusted captains in the MAGA family, Cohen, now a radio host, requested an interview through the White House communications department like the rest of the press corps, the official said.
Write to Philip Wegmann at philip.wegmann@wsj.com
One Subscription.
Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines
to 100 year archives.
Archives
HT App & Website