Trump is a "Cohn" man.. the reference is to Roy Cohn.. actually pronounced as "Cone", but you get the idea...
If you're interested in learning about someone who majorly influenced the political tactics and behaviors of the Trump we see today, check-out the 2019 documentary, "Where's My Roy Cohn?"
IMDB.com summarizes the documentary as, "Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues, from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J. Trump."
More from IMDB.. The documentary title was derived from a 2017 Trump rant directed at his then-attorney general Jeff Sessions. When Trump learned that Sessions would recuse himself from the DOJ's investigation of possible Russian collusion to interfere with the 2016 election, Trump was furious. Observed by many White House officials, Trump launched into a tirade in which he accused Sessions of failing to protect him.. during which he asked.. "Where's my Roy Cohn?"
Following are some excerpts from Politico and Vanity Fair in response to the documentary-- I think you'll find the Cohn-Trump parallels undeniable and frighteningly spot-on. More consequential, however, here's hoping that the last four comments are, indeed, a foretelling of the final reckoning...
Roy Cohn was indicted four times.. for obstructing justice.. conspiracy and filing false reports. And three times he was acquitted.. giving him a kind of sneering, sinister sheen of invulnerability. Cohn took his sanction-skirting capers and twisted them into a sort of "suit of armor."
"The maddening thing about Cohn and Trump is that they have this sort of Road Runner vs Wile E Coyote knack, where you think the boulder is going to fall on them and crush them and they escape just in the nick of time. There's a certain American romance to getting away with it. We all secretly admire the guy that can."
The government had long tried to take him down.. "a vendetta," Cohn thought.. but he had not fallen, or so much as flinched.. Many came to view his checkered record as not noxious but enticing.
He couldn't have given less of a sh*t about rules.. "I decided long ago," Cohn once told Penthouse, "to make my own rules." He was preening and combative, "look-at-me" lavish and loud.
Cohn had earned a reputation as "an intimidator and a bluffer, famous for winning cases by delays, evasions, and lies." He was largely disinterested in specifics, relying less on preparation and more on his belligerence, and his vast network of social and political connections.
"People came to me," Cohn explained in Penthouse, "because my public image was that I was unlike most other lawyers"-- in terms of Trump, "unlike any other Presidential candidates."
"He made his legal and political career in a milieu where money and power override rules and law- indeed where the ability to get, and get away with, what lesser citizens cannot, is what proves membership of an elite."
Cohn imparted an M.O. that's been on searing display throughout Trump's ascent.. his divisive, captivating campaign.. 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.
"Roy Cohn was a master of situational morality.. He worked with a three-dimensional strategy.. (1) Never settle, never surrender (2) Counterattack, countersue immediately (3) No matter what happens, no matter how deeply into the muck you get, claim victory and never admit defeat."
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Cohn was eventually disbarred. His conduct, according to the top appellate court in the state, was "unethical," "unprofessional" and "particularly reprehensible." In public, he remained tough-front defiant. He called those who had made the decision a "bunch of cheap politicians," a "bunch of yo-yos," a "bunch of nobodies."
Cohn soon after died of AIDS (a story in and of itself).. and was eulogized as a victim of "the liberal establishment," of "foes in the media," of "political enemies" who "tried to shoot him down."
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Cohn's cousin doesn't believe in karma, but he can't help but think there is a final reckoning. "You can only outrun that fortune, and your own mistakes, and your own ego, and your own nastiness, for so long."
"The open question is whether Trump's luck will hold up or whether-- like Cohn-- he'll run out of road and face a tsunami of legal difficulties that will diminish him or put an end to the game that he's played so effectively."
"We were all brought up to believe, whether it's an eye for an eye, it's religion, it's Greek tragedy, it's whatever, that justice is going to catch up with everybody. The jury's still out on Donald Trump. We don't know whether he'll get his comeuppance."
But the documentarian Tyrnauer closed with reiterating.. the last lesson of Cohn.. "He got away with it.. until he didn't."
