Roy Cohn and Donald Trump
Having read countless articles about Trump, interviews with Trump, and most of a biography, I was already very familiar with the facts in the above piece and the profound influence Cohn had on Trump’s life. For years, Cohn was Trump’s attack dog and in some ways his mentor.
By all accounts, Roy Cohn was a pit bull of a man. I cannot think of a worse person to choose as a mentor.
Another reason to dislike Trump. As if there were not enough already.
Wow! I thought Trump’s association with Roger Stone was bad enough. As Neo emphasized early on, Trump is a compulsive, ruthless, ill informed megalomaniac. I had thought I would never vote for a Democrat again, but I would if Trump is the nominee. He and his loyal followers need to be thoroughly defeated. Then maybe, some of his loyal followers and the GOPe will learn a lesson and rally behind a true conservative in the future.
Roy Cohn had a lot of friends, some surprising — from his obituary:
By any reasonable calculation, Cohn was a complete whack job. Good mentor.
Ann:
That’s quite an elastic definition the NY Times has of the word “friends.”
Cohn was close to Trump and Trump close to Cohn, both as legal advisor and personally, for many years. It is no exaggeration to say that Cohn was one of Trump’s mentors.
Reagan and Cohn? Nothing even remotely like that. Cohn was a Reagan admirer and Reagan donor. He was not a mentor, nor was he Reagan’s lawyer, nor his personal friend:
Reagan and Cohn certainly knew each other, and Reagan was grateful for his support and kind to him (letters of thanks, etc.). Note that the obituary you quoted phrases it as “Mr. Cohn counted among his friends.” I have little doubt he did; but I doubt that Reagan (and some of the others) would have counted Cohn as among their good friends or close associates, although I would guess that they admired certain things Cohn had done—his anti-Communist stance, his charitable contributions, his financial assistance in their own political ambitions (as with Reagan), and his support of Israel. What is being alleged about Trump’s friendship with and reliance on Cohn is far different.
Alan F:
Then you’ll be even happier to hear that Roger Stone was first introduced to Donald Trump by Roy Cohn.
I’m afraid you’ve accused Artfldgr wrongly, Neo — I’m the one who posted the link to the obit talking about Cohn’s “friends”.
You’re right, though, about all the people named — they were more than likely not friends-friends, as Whoopi Goldberg would likely point out.
Ann:
Wow, that’s the second time in the last 24 hours I’ve been sloppy about which commenter said what.
Not sure why that happened, but I’ll correct that previous comment and make it to you instead of Art. Thanks!
Hey, you do a remarkably good job of keeping up with all that’s said here on your blog. So a blip now and then…eh.
“Happier” is not the emotion I feel learning about Stone being introduced to Trump by Cohn. I feel naive for hoping that big-time politics should be less ruthless and conducted honestly. So, I deplore the ruthlessness and deceit of Trump and his key associates, but realize that it takes some ruthlessness to combat them
I finally got around to reading this article. Thanks for making note of it, Neo. Fascinating. There’s so much McCarthy in Trump’s style, I would have thought that reporters would cover a personal connection between them.