Donald Trump has been overt about his disdain for former president Barack Obama, but Michael Cohen has alleged that Trump took his hatred to such extremes he even hired a fake Obama just to publicly "belittle" and fire him.
CNN reports that Michael Cohen's new book, Disloyal: A Memoir, has revealed that Trump went through the effort to hire an actor to play Obama. This allegedly happened before Trump became President, during the Obama administration, around the same time he publicly questioned the former president's birthplace. Cohen has claimed that Trump referred to Obama as "a Manchurian candidate" in private, and even had "racist" outbursts.
Cohen wrote that Trump hired his "Faux-Bama" for a video he wanted filmed, in which he "ritualistically belittled the first Black president and then fired him." While he didn't name the actor who portrayed the fake Obama, he does include a photograph featuring the actor sitting at a desk with Trump. Cohen, who spent years as Trump's personal attorney and "fixer," described Trump as "a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man." He also alleged that Trump wanted to become president simply for the financial benefit.
In further comments in the book that are totally unsurprising, The Guardian reports that Trump in general has "a low opinion of all Black folks." In fact, he quoted Trump as saying, "Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a shithole. They are all complete fucking toilets." He added Trump praised apartheid South Africa, too. "Mandela fucked the whole country up," Cohen quoted Trump in the book. "Now it’s a shithole. Fuck Mandela. He was no leader."
In a statement, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress. He has lost all credibility, and it's unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies." While Cohen has called Trump an outright liar, Cohen previously admitted to lying in court and plead guilty to eight counts in 2018, including campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. He was released from prison early this year due to coronavirus-related concerns, serving the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
