Donald Trump and his former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, have reunited on Trump's radio show, marking a significant turn after years of public animosity and legal battles. The interview, parts of which aired on Cohen's 77 WABC radio program and are set to be fully broadcast on Sunday, presented a cordial dialogue with only brief mentions of their tumultuous history.
During the conversation, Trump expressed support for Cohen's recantation of previous statements, telling him, "They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized." He added, "I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said. That's a big thing that you did."
Trump also reflected on his political future, stating, "If I were running today, I think I'd win by 25 points. I think we'd win by a lot. The economy has never been stronger."
Cohen, who once famously stated he would "take a bullet" for Trump, served as his personal attorney for over a decade before their relationship soured. The fallout intensified in 2018 when federal agents searched Cohen's home and office, leading to his eventual guilty plea to charges including tax offenses and campaign-finance violations related to hush-money payments made at Trump's direction. Cohen later testified against Trump in congressional hearings and in the criminal hush money trial that resulted in Trump's conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
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Cohen described the reconciliation as an act of forgiveness, stating in a newsletter that "The good times don't cease to have existed because the bad times came afterward." He explained that forgiveness "does not mean amnesia. It does not mean that the past did not happen. It does not mean the scars vanish, that the pain was fake or that I have forgotten a single second of what transpired." He characterized it as "having the courage to decide that yesterday will no longer dictate tomorrow."
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This truce places Cohen among a list of former Trump associates who have publicly clashed with the president but later reconciled, a group that includes Elon Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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In a 2020 memoir, Cohen described Trump as an "organized crime don" and "master manipulator" but also expressed lingering affection. He has recently submitted a pardon application to the White House, which was previously denied by the prior administration, and planned to follow up on the request.
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