President Trump’s reaction to https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-cohen-trumps-former-lawyer-pleads-guilty-to-lying-to-congress/2018/11/29/5fac986a-f3e0-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.3e598a523d52 (a new guilty plea) Thursday from his longtime attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was predictably pugnacious: Cohen, one of Trump’s strongest defenders for more than a decade, was “a weak person and not a very smart person.” Asked why he had kept such a character on his payroll for so many years, the president sounded like a parody of a lousy mob flick: “Because a long time ago, he did me a favor.”
That was predictable, too.
An affinity for mobsters and their rhetoric has been a consistent thread through Trump’s adult life. From his early professional mentor, the New York lawyer and power broker https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/former-mccarthy-aide-showed-trump-how-to-exploit-power-and-draw-attention/2016/06/16/e9f44f20-2bf3-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html?utm_term=.f620955fc482 (Roy Cohn), to his many years of dealing with mob-connected union and construction industry bosses, Trump has formed close alliances with renegades and rogues who sometimes ended up on the wrong side of the law. He’s long learned from and looked up to tough, street-smart guys who didn’t mind breaking some rules to get things done. Trump also admires mobsters’ no-nonsense language and bais for action; he cites “https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NTPDSW?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B000NTPDSW (The Godfather)” and “https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GWBYV32?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B01GWBYV32 (Goodfellas)” among his favorite movies.