Donald Trump once called Michael Cohen a ‘rat.’ Now they’re sitting down for a public conversation
Donald Trump once called Michael Cohen a rat
Goldlaner.com – Donald Trump once called Michael Cohen a rat, a liar, and a traitor to the cause — language that sealed a decade-long alliance in a single afternoon of fury in August 2018. Eight years later, that same president has agreed to sit down, pick up a phone, and talk. Cohen, who now hosts a weekday radio show on New York’s WABC, taped a 40-minute telephone conversation with the president: their first open, on-the-record exchange since the professional and personal bond between them collapsed. The segment is slated to air Thursday evening, and Cohen has framed the moment as the culmination of a quiet, deeply personal rapprochement that neither man expected to survive the courtroom years.
Why does a single phone call matter enough to fill front pages? Because it reframes the entire loyalty architecture around the White House. Old enemies can re-enter orbit. The boundaries of who counts as “us” versus “them” have become negotiable, and listeners get an unfiltered look at how two men process betrayal, abandonment, and the slow erosion of public hostility into something closer to mutual acknowledgment.
The August 2018 Rupture
The break came fast and final. On August 21, 2018, Cohen walked into Manhattan federal court and entered guilty pleas on eight criminal counts. His testimony named the president directly in a scheme built to buy silence from women who alleged romantic or sexual encounters with the then-candidate during the 2016 campaign. The payments — later branded “hush money” — were structured to keep those stories buried through an election season already saturated with scrutiny.
The president’s response was personal and immediate. A man who had once called his closest legal confidant a “pit bull” — a protector who would take a bullet — began referring to him publicly as a rat. The language was not casual. It marked the end of a decade of work and the start of a feud that dominated New York legal headlines for years.
Prison, Books, and the Witness Stand
Cohen served prison time and remains the only individual incarcerated in connection with the hush-money scheme. After release, he channeled the experience into two books, Disloyal and Revenge, both detailing what he described as being left exposed while he bore the full weight of criminal penalties alone.
His role in the subsequent New York criminal trial against the president was central. Cohen became the star witness, testifying about the mechanics of the payments and the instructions he received. The credibility that once anchored his career as the closest legal confidant in the room became the instrument of his former boss’s prosecution.
The 2024 Conviction and the Quiet Thaw
In 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted the president on 34 counts of falsifying business records, charges tied directly to hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film performer, in exchange for her silence about an alleged past encounter. The president, who has consistently denied the affair, received no jail sentence and has continued to appeal. The outcome left both men with a shared, if bitterly contested, history of courtroom consequences.
The shift toward reconciliation did not announce itself. According to Cohen, it began with an unexpected text from someone he identified only as a “White House friend and an insider.” The intermediary relayed a message from the president expressing what Cohen called “genuine empathy” for being dragged through another round of legal and personal torment.
“I thanked him, expressed my sincere hope that this long, exhausting feud between the two of us could finally end, and what was, I found, even more interesting is that he replied almost immediately, agreeing that it was actually time for us to meet.”
Cohen said he was “very surprised” by the speed and warmth of the reply. He declined to name the intermediary, but the episode opened a channel that had been sealed for years. Over the following months, the two men met privately at the president’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a person familiar with the arrangements. No details of those meetings have been made public, but their existence confirmed the thaw was real and ongoing.
Cohen has also pointed to what he views as external pressure on the reconciliation: his claim that New York prosecutors, including Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, had pressured and coerced him into testifying against the president. Whether or not that characterization holds up under scrutiny, the interview itself signals that both men have decided the feud’s utility has expired — and that a single hour of dialogue, however imperfect, outweighs eight years of silence.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will the interview air? The 40-minute telephone conversation is scheduled to broadcast Thursday evening on Cohen’s WABC radio program.
Is this their first public exchange since 2018? Yes. It is described as their first open, on-the-record conversation since the professional and personal alliance shattered in the summer of 2018, following Cohen’s guilty pleas and testimony.
What happened in August 2018? On August 21, 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts in Manhattan federal court and testified that the president directed hush-money payments to women alleging past relationships during the 2016 campaign.
Did the president serve time? No. In 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records, but he received no jail sentence and has continued to appeal the conviction.
How did the reconciliation begin? Cohen says it started with a text message relayed through an unnamed “White House friend and an insider,” conveying the president’s expressed empathy and willingness to meet. Private meetings at Bedminster, New Jersey, followed before the taped interview was arranged.
