Michael Cohen really, really wants everyone to know he’s friends with President Donald Trump again. But are the feelings mutual?
Trump made an appearance Thursday evening on a new talk radio show hosted by Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, erstwhile fixer and — until a very public falling-out and a short stint behind bars — friend.
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Trump was at least willing to share the airwaves on the MAGA-friendly AM talk radio station WABC in New York with a man he once called a “liar” and a “rat.” But Trump had very little to say about his decades-long friendship with Cohen, their public breakup or their apparent rekindling.
Trump and Cohen came to an agreement about one thing: The president’s haters, Trump told his on-again-off-again-maybe-on-again pal, “weaponized you.”
“They weaponized a lot of people, and I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump told Cohen. “That’s a big thing you did. That’s a very big thing.”
Beyond that, however, the much-hyped reunion interview kept a tight focus on Trump’s top talking points, including jabs at his enemies in the Democratic Party and his chances with voters if he made another run for the White House.
‘The next Rush Limbaugh’
The telephone interview between Cohen and Trump — part of which was aired on Thursday, with an additional segment scheduled for Sunday evening — marks a turning point between the president and a man who once testified against him in court.
An interview with a sitting U.S. president was a good get for a radio program that’s only a month old. WABC’s billionaire owner, Trump ally John Catsimatidis, said last month that Trump had personally approved Cohen’s new gig. In a country “that is so bombarded by fake news,” Catsimatidis said, Cohen offers “clarity and perspective to the conversation.”
“The president was in favor of the hiring,” Catsimatidis, who owns the popular New York City grocery store chain Gristedes, told Straight Arrow last month. “He believes Michael could be the next Rush Limbaugh.”
Cohen became, briefly, an ardent Trump critic — referring to him as “a conman” and “a cheat” — and was sent to prison after admitting he sent pre-election hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal on the president’s behalf. He was a key prosecution witness when Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records related to the payments to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Ahead of Trump’s WABC interview, Politico questioned whether Cohen would use the on-air exchange to ask for a pardon.
Catsimatidis has long been cozy with Trump, though that friendship has also taken some twists and turns. As Straight Arrow reported earlier this week, WABC took a stand against election denialism after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Catsimatidis had former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani yanked off the air for using the WABC platform to float false election fraud claims.
But that stand against the president has similarly fizzled off, and now, as a new election cycle heats up, the station has returned to platforming election conspiracy theories it once banned.
In his short time on the WABC airwaves, Cohen has used his show, “When You Know, You Know,” as a reunion tour of sorts with Trump. But Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet for the president,” has also used the platform to take shots at the president’s most diehard supporters.
Taking jabs at ‘Camp Trump’
Cohen told Straight Arrow last month that he hopes to challenge “a mistaken belief that the loudest voice in the room is one that is heard.” He’s using his new platform to clap back at a constituency he called “Camp Trump.”
In a Substack post before the interview with the president, Cohen wrote that his email inbox had “once again become a digital battlefield” with messages from irate people “ready to personally escort me to the gates of hell for daring to share a microphone with Donald Trump again.”
Cohen, who once referred to Trump as a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain,” took particular jabs at social media haters whose profiles feature “sparkling cross” emojis, Bible verses and bios “proudly announcing a deep Christian faith and a commitment to loving one’s neighbor.”
“One minute, they’re posting inspirational memes about divine love and turning the other cheek,” Cohen wrote. “The next, they’re screaming into my digital throat with enough fury to melt the screen.”
So if Trump appeared reluctant to rekindle a friendship that Cohen can’t stop talking about, how did he convince the president to come on his show? And what might WABC’s conservative listeners gain from the president’s appearance?
When Straight Arrow reached out to Catsimatidis for comment, he offered a brief response: “Listen to the interview first.”
Round out your reading
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- Photos and video show exactly where and when Trump visited Ground Zero after 9/11.
