“Trump,” the late Wayne Barrett wrote in 1979, “is a user of other users”—a keen, foundational insight, true then and true now. And with the exception of his father, whose fortune
made possible the life he’s lived, Trump used Cohn more than he used anybody.
From 1973, when Cohn started representing the Trumps after the Department of Justice
sued them for racist rental practices at the thousands of apartments they owned, through the rest of the ’70s and into the ’80s, when he served as an indispensable
macher for Trump’s
career-
launching maneuvers, Cohn became for Trump something much more than simply his attorney. At a most formative moment for Trump, there was no more formative figure than Cohn.
Tyrnauer and Zirin remind viewers and readers that Cohn imparted an M.O. that’s been on searing display throughout Trump’s ascent, his divisive, captivating campaign, and his fraught, unprecedented presidency. Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.
Trump was Cohn’s most insatiable student and beneficiary. “He didn’t just educate Trump, he didn’t just teach Trump, he put Trump in with people who would
make Trump,” Marcus, his cousin, told me. “Roy gave him the tools. All the tools.”
“He loved him,” early Trump Organization executive Louise Sunshine told me.
Why?
“He was ruthless.”