Cohen’s Bogus Book Doesn’t Match Trump’s Record
The obviously timed political smear accuses Trump of duping his supporters.
In a soon-to-be released book titled Disloyal, Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to three years for financial fraud and lying to Congress, calls President Donald Trump a “cult leader” who “cares for no one or anything other than himself.” The obviously politically timed smear alleges that Trump is a racist who “as a rule … expressed low opinions of all black folks” and sees evangelicals as religious quacks. But who are you going to believe — Trump’s disgraced and dishonest former personal lawyer, or your own lying eyes?
Cohen asserts that Trump is an elitist who holds derisive views of middle America. “The cosmic joke was that Trump convinced a vast swathe of working-class white folks in the Midwest that he cared about their well-being,” Cohen writes. “The truth was that he couldn’t care less.”
The overall aim of Cohen’s book is to paint Trump as a master grifter who orchestrated a great deception upon the American people. But it essentially presents the same tired charge Democrats and the Leftmedia have been making against Trump ever since his nomination. The irony is that Cohen unwittingly exposes his own elitist low opinion of middle-class and black Americans, scoffing that they were too stupid to see the “truth” about Trump.
The reason Trump has maintained such strong support from working-class Americans and evangelicals and is seeing his support among black Americans grow is that his record as president belies the Left’s narrative. An honest observer would not look at Trump’s impressive accomplishments and conclude that the man is a closet racist or a conman swindling working-class Americans out of their constitutional rights. In fact, an honest observer would conclude just the opposite.
Under Trump, black Americans have enjoyed record employment, the passage of criminal justice reform (the First Step Act), increased funding for historically black colleges and universities, and billions of dollars from private investors brought into lower-income communities via opportunity zones created by the 2017 Republican tax reform. Furthermore, Trump has regularly met with and sought insight from black community and religious leaders, including our own Patrick Hampton. Cohen’s charge that Trump has a “low opinion of blacks” simply doesn’t hold true to his record.
While Trump is clearly not an evangelical, the claim that he views evangelicals with the same low regard as the Democrats and the Leftmedia do also doesn’t square with his actual record. The most obvious fact challenging this charge is Trump’s choice of Mike Pence as his vice president. Pence is a devout evangelical Christian who takes his faith seriously, and Trump has regularly and repeatedly expressed complete confidence in and respect for Pence. Trump also has proven himself to be the most pro-life president elected since Roe v. Wade, for example becoming the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life. And maybe the greatest indication that Cohen’s indictment against Trump is false is the president’s steady support within the evangelical community. A recent Pew Research survey found that 82% of evangelicals would vote for Trump if the election were held today — a number that slightly exceeds his support in 2016.
In reality, Cohen’s book is little other than sour grapes from a disgruntled man who fell out of favor with Trump after he was caught in his own web of lies. As White House Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morganstern pointedly notes, “He readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales.” Precisely.