President Donald Trump is transfixed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s money and power, and sought the Kremlin’s help in the 2016 election, Trump’s former personal attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen claims in his upcoming book, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
Cohen also reveals in the wide-ranging exposé that Trump was “well aware” of hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the last presidential campaign, according to the Post.
Also, Cohen exposes astonishing disparaging comments Trump made about his children — and minorities. He once described people of color as “not my people,” and said that Hispanics, “like the Blacks ... are too stupid to vote for Trump,” according to Cohen, the Post reports.
Trump also said that Nelson Mandela “ruined” South Africa and that it should have remained under white rule. “Mandela f―ed the whole country up. Now it’s a s―hole. F― Mandela. He was no leader,” Cohen claimed in the book, “Disloyal: A Memoir.”
“Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a s―hole. They are all complete f―ing toilets,” Cohen says Trump complained while ranting about former President Barack Obama.
Trump also called it “bull—” when evangelical leaders gathered to lay hands on the president, Cohen said.
Cohen concedes that he was Trump’s “designated thug” and did his dirty work. He’s currently serving a three-year sentence (at home) for lying to Congress and campaign finance violations.
As for Putin, Cohen alleges that Trump made “overt and covert attempts to get Russia to interfere in the 2016 election” — though he offers no new details, according to the Post.
Trump’s infatuation with Putin sprang from his “love” of money, according to Cohen. He mistakenly identified Putin as “the richest man in the world,” Cohen writes. Trump also admired the Russian strongman because Putin had the ability “to take over an entire nation and run it like it was his personal company — like the Trump Organization, in fact,” according to Cohen.
Trump dreamed of a 120-story Trump Tower Moscow, and planned to give the penthouse apartment to Putin for free, in part “as a way to suck up” to the Russian leader, Cohen writes.
Cohen worked to nail down the deal even after Trump declared that he was running for president, he writes. He also claimed that first daughter Ivanka Trump, now a senior White House adviser, chose the decorator finishes for the tower.
“The whole idea of patriotism and treason became irrelevant in his mind,” Cohen writes. “Trump was using the campaign to make money for himself: Of course he was.”
Despite Trump’s currying favor with Putin, Cohen contends that it was an “insidious” and effective “disinformation campaign” from his supporters in America that helped him finally win the White House.
He points to David Pecker — Trump pal and CEO of National Enquirer parent company American Media — who took early action to bury the Daniels story. He also arranged to publish a false report that the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was somehow mixed up in John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Cohen notes.
“It’s not real, right?” Trump asked before signing off on the story, according to Cohen.
The Enquirer went after every other one of Trump’s rivals in the fight to win the Republican presidential nomination, Cohen writes.
The White House immediately slammed the book. “Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress,” read a statement issued by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies.”
Read the entire Washington Post story here.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article referred to Ted Cruz as a Democrat. He is a Republican.