What Donald Trump Learned From America’s Meanest and Most Vile Lawyer, Roy Cohn
Everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s political tactics of lying, exaggeration, truculence, insults, attacks and media manipulation can be found by reading the life story of Roy Cohn, Trump’s 20-year friend and mentor, a stylish yet vile and vindictive man who lead the witch hunt for Communists in the 1950s, and later became a NY City power broker mob lawyer.
In 1978, Esquire Magazine called Roy Cohn “the toughest, meanest, vilest lawyer in America.” A title that is now held by… ALL the lawyers in America.
Cohn got his start in 1951 by successfully leading the prosecution that convicted The Rosenberg of giving US nuclear secrets to the Russians.
Cohn became the chief hatchet man and legal counselor to Senator McCarthy who zealously investigated alleged communist sympathizers in the US.
Cohn later joins a New York Law Firm and quickly built on his reputation as a pugnacious litigator. His 20 year friendship with Donald Trump began in 1973 after the Justice Department accused Trump and his father of discrimination against blacks when renting apartments.
Trump hires Cohn, and it’s at this point Cohn teaches Trump his first political lesson: Attack. Counter Attack and Never Apologize!
Cohn’s defense scheme was to file a 100-million dollar countersuit calling the discrimination charges against the Trumps “irresponsible and baseless.” He also insisted the office of the Jewish prosecutor was engaging in Nazi Gestapo tactics… AND that on Hogan’s Heroes, the prosecutor was rooting for Col. Klink. That last part might be a joke.
Two years later, the case settled and Trump was forced to place ads in newspapers that said his apartments welcomed black tenants… and that he would be available in the evenings from 9 to 11 if prostitutes wanted to pee on him. Trump’s counter suit was tossed by the judge, who called it: “the biggest waste of paper until your Muslim ban in 2017.”
The settlement included the stipulation that Trump does NOT admit to any wrong doing, even if some day he’s accused of coordinating with Russia to rig a presidential election.
“Attack” isn’t the only lesson Trump learned from Cohn. He also learned all publicity is good. Roy Cohn used to feed stories about himself to the media… a trick Trump doubled down on in the 80s — pretending to be his own publicist.
Allegations that Trump would also breath heavily and touch himself while on the phone… were just made up by me.
In his autobiography, Roy Cohn says ‘what you say can have nothing to do with what you believe.’ Trump has a tramp stamp of that quote on his lower back. It’s also now written on our money instead of E Pluribus Unum.
Roy Cohn was notorious for cheating people out of money he owed. He knew creditors would never sue because a lawyer would cost more than the debt. The USA Today reports 235 contractors who helped build Trump’s Taj Mahal casino were never paid, not paid in full or were paid so late they had to file grievances with the state labor commission. Do you have any idea how pissed off a fat lazy mob connected NJ union construction worker has to be to go down to Trenton, wait in line, and fill out legal paperwork in triplicate?
Cohn also perfected an ingenious litigation strategy: He frequently made shocking statements that were impossible to fact check in order to distract the opposition.
During the communist witch hunt of the 1950s, Roy Cohn bitterly divided the nation by viciously smearing Jews, gays, people of color and intellectuals in an effort to taint those he perceived as destabilizing and undermining America’s character. Trump, for his part, has grabbed quite a bit of taint.
Oh, and Trump has also smeared Muslims and Mexicans for the same jingoistic ends.
And, finally, Roy Cohn was obsessed with his public persona. Although in print he was often accused of being vindictive, arrogant, petty, and engaging in criminal activities, and those were his good qualities — he told Esquire magazine that quote “It has given me the reputation for being tough, a reputation for being a winner.”
Cohn was obsessed with “winning” — his 1981 book was titled: “How to Stand Up For Your Rights and Win.” Cheetoh Jesus, you may noticed, has the same obsession.
In Cohn’s book Trump learns the lesson that most crucially catapulted him to the presidency. Cohn writes: “the greatness of our system includes the fact that often the black and white is overcome by the red white and blue.”
You can find much more of Jon Hotchkiss’ work, as well as all episodes of his political series, Be Less Stupid @ http://factbox.tv