Book review of Michael Cohen’s Disloyal…
Disloyal. Michael Coen, author (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020). Of all the tell-alls about Trump aka Il Duce aka Narcissus le Grand aka that “f&%$ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote), this one was the most enjoyable to read so far. (I’m sure there’ll be more if he gets another term–God help us!) I don’t know if a ghost-writer was used (the author claims he wrote it using pen and legal pads in his cell), but it’s well-written, a memoir more like a novel portraying the dark, psychotic mind of the most dangerous man on Earth. The difference with a novel? This is all reality, or, if you insist, a portrait of the fantasy world mentally ill Trump lives in. It’s very entertaining. I’m reluctant to confess that. But it also reconfirmed all the bad things I know about the orange-haired devil…and more. Perhaps as part of Il Duce’s faux “patriotism course” where he wants to brainwash grade school children, we should also include this book as required reading in all high school civics courses as lessons for what a responsible electorate should NOT do. If Trump’s presidency doesn’t destroy this country, I’ll be surprised.
“Oh,” you might say, especially if you’re one of Trump’s fanatic followers, “Cohen is just a disgruntled Trump ex-employee.” I’m sure Moscow Mitch, Loco Lindsey, Jimmy “Jones” Jordan, and other Trump toadies are all saying that. They think rational voters will swallow their damn poisoned Kool-Aid. To them and every other naysayer, I counter that with, “Read the book if you can stop bloviating long enough.” From a “f&^%ing moron” to soldiers being “suckers” and “losers,” even while killing thousands of US citizens with his mishandling of the COVID pandemic, Trump’s actions are plain for any rational person to see. With this book, you’ll discover that what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. There aren’t enough awful adjectives to describe this despicable excuse of a human being.
Cohen belongs in jail too, of course. His mea culpa here is a great service to the US, though, because of the coming elections. He allows us to enter the fanatic, feverish mind of Trump, and that mind is a psychotic morass of darkness and evil. That’s what’s so scary—a Hitler for the 21st century. Those mental health experts weren’t wrong. He belongs in a straitjacket and a padded cell…for the rest of his life!
Cohen’s own life started out normally, not with millions given to him by his father like Trump (self-made billionaire indeed!). I believe Cohen truly loves his wife and children, innocents in this whole business, although the SDNY threatened Mrs. Cohen to get to her husband. Cohen betrayed them. And Trump abused Cohen and ultimately betrayed him. His daughter was even called a “nice piece of ass” by Trump, and Cohen did nothing. Greed was his first sin with his real estate deals and taxi medallions. He worked his way into NYC’s dirty business climate like any gangster. Desire for power, even if only to bask in its putrid light that Trump emits without anything to back it up (rigging an NBC “powerful businessmen” poll, stiffing vendors, his many bankruptcies, and other events in the book, show his business acumen is far overrated), is Cohen’s second sin. He started out his life with Trump by helping Don Jr. “fix a problem”; the only sympathy I have for that jerk is that his father treats him like dirt too.
The evangelicals laying on hands to transfer God’s power to Trump when he was considering his first run for the presidency was but one of many great episodes of noir humor the reader will find in this book. Trump just closed his eyes and pretended to pray. The evangelical leaders, including the Falwells, don’t come across well in this expose. Of course, the Devil uses them just as much as they use the Devil. They’re all guilty in Lady Justice’s eyes and especially God’s. As much as Trump courts evangelical fanatics, he’s a hypocrite just like Falwell and Graham, none of them deserving any God-fearing woman or man’s adoration.
This is a damning portrayal of our man in the White House. Cohen’s protestations don’t impress me either. I blame him and many others for swallowing Trump’s Kool-Aid (actually, he’s cheap too, so he would only pay for the cheap knock-off Jim Jones used in Guyana). We’ve been saddled with a despot because of Cohen and others who have enabled Trump.
The book is foremost a portrait of Trump, from the three-layer comb-over of that golden-dyed mop designed to hide scars from a failed 1980’s hair implant, to the truth about Stormy and Karen McDougal and all his other girls, groped genitals or not, Cohen paints a picture of a vain, arrogant, perverted old man desperate to preserve his image without any concern about screwing people, literally or figuratively. He doesn’t care if people die from COVID, as we’ve heard recently in Woodward’s Rage, even his followers who won’t follow any of the norms of decent and responsible pandemic behavior. He says that in that way he doesn’t have to “shake their dirty hands.”
Here’s a nitpick that’s an interesting aside: There are editing glitches remaining (maybe because the publisher wanted to hurry to get the book out?). While Cohen (and his ghostwriter?) tell a good tale (this is a memoir, so “tale” doesn’t translate to “lie” here, as it usually does for Cohen’s ex-Boss), these gaffes caught my eagle-editor’s eye. They’re more proof, of course, that traditional publishing doesn’t guarantee pristine prose, and self-publishing’s bad rep from traditionally published authors and their publishers isn’t deserved.
Yes, Cohen was the fixer—stiffing vendors, paying off Stormy and other women, helping Becki Falwell in her time of need (yes, the pool boy is here, and Becki is disrobing long before the recent scandal in the evangelical leader’s life leading to his resignation from Liberty University, Falwell senior’s excuse of a university)—all kinds of salacious and sleazy fixes for Trump, his family, and acquaintances (remember, Trump doesn’t have friends, only acquaintances whom he exploits until he tosses them away). Cohen was weak, and Trump owned him. Until he didn’t. Trump threw him under the bus too. Now Cohen has his revenge. Hopefully we’ll get ours too by ushering Trump out of the White House, thus maybe saving our country.
If you can’t read the entire book, at least read the epilogue. You will see why I say that Trump’s America is becoming a fascist America as its autocratic leader, this wannabe Hitler, aided by Barr, Himmler-Miller, and others in his administration and in Congress carry out the Nazi Anschluss of America. Only the 2020 elections can stop that downward spiral. To that end, here are Cohen’s final words from the man who best knows Trump: “There is a serious danger that Donald Trump will not leave office easily, and there is a real chance of not having a peaceful transition. When he jokes about running again in 2024 [FDR dreams?] and gets a crowd of thousands to chant ‘Trump 2024,’ he’s not joking. Trump never jokes.” You might think that Cohen is a lying, disgruntled employee of the Trump Organization, but this isn’t a lie—it’s a prediction! With this book, Cohen show’s the truth in the following: “You now have all the information you need to decide for yourself in November.” Don’t blow it, folks! We don’t need a Fourth Reich in America with Fuehrer Donald Trump.
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Comments are always welcome.
Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). See the Readers’ Favorite 5-star review here.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
