Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”- Matthew 16:26 Michael Cohen doesn’t quote Matthew, but the sentiment is a theme he repeats over and over Cohen is well aware that most people will be repulsed by the way he was able to set aside morality, kindness and integrity in the service of Donald Trump. Trump’s own lack of a soul as described here is particularly frightening, given the power of the presidency. Cohen admits he graduated from one of the worst law school in America. Nevertheless he was earning $750/hr pre-Trump and had been able, apparently, to make millions from New York’s tax medallions and some real estate purchases and sales. He contrives to meet Trump (my opinion, not exactly how he puts it) by buying condos in two different locations and then choosing his side in a dispute with one of the boards. Blind ambition. In this way, Cohen met the “kids” and then Trump himself and did several jobs for him—without pay—before Trump finally decided Cohen might have some of the qualities of the late largely unlamented and unethical thug who preceded him a decade earlier,, the infamous Roy Cohn. Cohen jump into the new role enthusiaistically for the next ten years. As a teen, Cohen, had some contact sand fascination with Italian majfiosa. He sees resemblance between Trump and a mob boss. (Comey and McCabe would—from two very different kinds of experiences with organized crime—also observe the same thing.) Cohen describes himself in his work for Trump, as “ one hundred percent a made man.” He also describes himself unsparingly as a thug, a complete opportunist, and a man whose conscience was never once bothered by what he was doing on Trump’s behalf—whether it was cheating small business owners out of money they were owed, working with the National Enquirer’s David Pecker to “catch and kill” stories about Trump grabbing women’s genitalia or arranging illegal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels eleven days before Election Day. (Will any reporter actually ask Trump if he approved this payment? It’s against the law and he’s never actually denied it.) Cohen had gotten rich from New York’s taxi medallions, but wanted more money, more power, more importance and proximity to celebrity. He wanted to feel superior to others. He writes he was “actively, rabidly, incessantly, insistently repeated the lies and innuendo, knowing in my heart that it was wrong—but unable to stop myself.” He described his desire to please Trump as “a cult of personality. And I loved it.” He describes Trump’s racism (no “n” word, but plenty of blatant racism all the same, much of it aimed at Barack Obama. Obama, fit, and some, a fine writer and orator, admired and smart—represented things that Donald Trump was not and it infuriated him.) Cohen describes how Trump grabbed onto the issues popular on the right and stoked racial grievance in the lie of so-called birtherism. With help from Fox news (See Brian Stelter’s Hoax) Trump became someone give serious attention for his ridiculous and divisive political expressions. Cohen showed him a poll in mid-2011 that showed 26 percent of Republicans favored him for president. It was, Cohen says, because of birtherism. (The WHCD didn’t make Trump run, per Cohen, but it solidified his decision.) Trump hates Obama, and is extremely threatened by his accomplishments (he also hates Nelson Mandela, harkening back to the good old days of apartheid instead.) Cohen includes a photo of when he hired a fuax Obama impersonator to come into Trump’s office because Trump wanted to humiliate and fire him. Bizarre? Yes. Maybe the Steele Dossier’s description of Trump and prostitutes in the Ritz Carlton Moscow was true after all. Cohen doesn’t rule it out. This is a quick read and, yes, a cautionary tale. I watched Cohen’s testimony to Congress—explosive in describing Trump and the payments, and I believed him as did prosecutors. (Plus, he had cancelled checks and copies of letters). He's serving 3 years –now out of prison in home confinement now because of covid. Several of the crimes were for Trump-related actions (yes, as he told Congress under oath, “Individual 1 whom he implicated to prosecutors and in court—was, indeed “Donald J. Trump”). This book has a few themes—corruption of all kinds, certainly. But beyond that, Cohen is certain that Trump has so many illegal activities, so much to hide, that he will do anything—anything—to stay in office. He calls him dangerous, and is convincing.\ Cohen describes a man who is angry and empty. He has avoided accountability all his life and Cohen is convinced he will do everything possible—everything—to avoid it now, too. Will any reporter ever ask Trump about his apparent perjury to Mueller re: Stone, per Senate Intel committee? He includes some gossip – for example, describing Kushner (unsurprisingly) as “ supremely arrogant, a real snob, with an exaggerated sense of his importance and intelligence.” Ivanka, could be fakely friendly and pleasant, but when it came to being ruthless in serving her own financial advantage she was as unethical as her father. Cohen took pride in doing the worst jobs for Trump, the real “dirty work”... “no matter how dishonest or dishonorable”. Cohen now sees himself as a former Trump cultist and watches the news of the White House staff and people like Giuliani as cult members. He tells many stories of how Trump lies—in big matters and small—and how people who know better capitulate to him. Cohen describes how pleasing Trump – and the fear of displeasing him—took over his life for ten years. He observed too that trump had an “unerring instinct for sycophantic yes men” like Lindsey Graham and Jim Jordan, weak men like himself, too, who could easily be co-opted. He sees in descriptions of cohen and a few others a microcosm of the larger picture—trump’s ability to completely takeover the Republican Party, leaving other politicians mostly servile and acquiescent to whatever he wants from them. He describes Trump unflatteringly, noting how his “grandiose sense of self importance, need for constant praise, exploitation of others without guilt or shame was the classic definition of a narcissistic sociopath.”Trump also “constantly projected his worst traits onto others”. After Trump behaved in a sleazy way toward Cohen’s 15 year old daughter “asking for a kiss and telling her in a few years he’d be dating her friends, he daughter told Cohen she was tired of creepy rich old men treating young women that way. She added that she thought her father had Stockholm Syndrome. (From Stone, to the Trump kids to the Agalarovs etc. the only likable people in this tale are Cohen’s family—none of whom approve of Trump—but we don’t see much of them.) All in all, its a cautionary tale of moral corruption and ambition driven only by self-interest, a life without ideals. Not only Cohen’s but, especially, Donald Trump’s.