Trump appears on former fixer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen's radio show
after detente
[August 21, 2026]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and JILL COLVIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump appeared Thursday on his former
fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen's radio show, holding a stunning public
reunion with the man who once called him a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon
villain” and testified against him both in court and before Congress.
For Cohen, who served prison time for his role in what he said was
covering up Trump’s “dirty deeds,” it was the culmination of a
behind-the-scenes detente that would have been impossible to imagine
several years ago.
The interview, part of which aired on Cohen's 77 WABC radio program
Thursday evening and which will air in full Sunday, was an exceptionally
friendly affair, with only passing reference to the men's tumultuous
history.
“They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized, like few have
been,” Trump told Cohen.
“I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” he went on.
“That’s a big thing that you did."
In an interview with CNN shortly before the radio interview aired, Cohen
said he had resubmitted a pardon application to the White House that had
been denied by the previous administration, but had yet to receive any
response and planned to follow up Friday.
The truce with Cohen makes him the latest in a long line of Trump
loyalists who have had public falling-outs with the president but found
themselves back in his good graces. Other recent examples include Elon
Musk and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But the split from Cohen was perhaps the most personal. Cohen once
boasted that he would “take a bullet” for the president and was by
Trump’s side during his political rise. After their public breakup,
Cohen’s testimony in Trump’s 2024 criminal hush-money trial instead
helped secure Trump’s criminal conviction just as he was trying to make
his political comeback.
Cohen has since criticized prosecutors in the case — an admission that
paved the way for their reconciliation.
‘Boss, remember when I was by your side,’ Cohen tells Trump
Cohen has said he and the president have had multiple conversations over
the past year and introduced the interview by explaining his decision to
move on.
“Forgiveness does not mean amnesia. It does not mean that the past did
not happen. It does not mean the scars vanish, that the pain was fake or
that I have forgotten a single second of what transpired, I have not.
Forgiveness isn’t about erasing history," he said. “It is about having
the courage to decide that yesterday will no longer dictate tomorrow.”
He sounded nostalgic about a time when he was one of Trump's most
trusted aides.
“Boss, remember when I was by your side,” he said at one point.
The clip was introduced with the 1975 War song, “Why Can’t We Be
Friends,” and closed with the lyrics, “Reunited and it feels so good,”
from the 1978 Peaches & Herb song.
In a long post on his online newsletter Thursday promoting the
interview, Cohen said that although his relationship with Trump became
“political blood sport,” there were 15 years of close friendship between
them.
“The good times don’t cease to have existed because the bad times came
afterward,” Cohen wrote.
Simply, he said, “We forgave.”
Trump had made no warm public statements about Cohen before Thursday,
but in a series of social media posts this year, he linked to some of
his former lawyer’s comments saying he felt pressured by prosecutors to
testify against Trump in the criminal hush money case and a civil fraud
case.
[to top of second column]
|
Michael Cohen speaks during a news conference announcing his new
radio show in New York, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Cohen was a key figure in Trump's prosecution in New York
In 2024, Cohen was the star witness in Trump's criminal hush money
trial, which resulted in a 34-count felony conviction. He ended up
facing no punishment.
But over days of probing questioning by prosecutors, followed by
bruising cross-examination, Cohen placed the then-Republican candidate
at the center of schemes during the 2016 presidential election to stifle
accounts from an adult film actor and former Playboy model who said they
had sexual encounters with Trump.
Cohen testified that Trump promised to reimburse the lawyer for the
money he fronted and that he was constantly updated on behind-the-scenes
efforts to bury stories feared to be harmful to the campaign.
“What I was doing, I was doing at the direction of and benefit of Mr.
Trump,” Cohen testified.
Cohen’s testimony at the time appeared to be the final breach in a
once-close relationship between the lawyer and his client that was
tested in dramatic fashion in 2018 when FBI agents searched Cohen’s
office, home and hotel room.
Cohen later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower
project in Russia as well as to campaign finance violations in which he
implicated Trump in payments that went to Stormy Daniels, an adult film
star, and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. He was sentenced to three
years in prison.
Since his trial testimony, though, Cohen has sung a different tune as
he’s moved closer to Trump, insisting that he had testified under
duress.
“I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony
that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against
and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” he wrote
in a Substack post in January.
Cohen testified before Congress in 2019, alleging Trump had a history of
misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax
benefits.
He gave similar testimony in a 2023 civil fraud trial in New York, which
found that Trump and his companies had engaged in fraud by exaggerating
his wealth for decades. A New York appeals court later threw out a $550
million judgment against Trump in that case. Trump has asked a court to
overturn the remaining parts of the case.
In his tell-all memoir in 2020, “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former
Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” Cohen was unsparing,
calling Trump an “organized crime don” and “master manipulator.”
But, foreshadowing their later rapprochement, Cohen also wrote that he
still cared for Trump, writing, “I had and still have a lot of affection
for him.”
___
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in
Washington contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
