Trump appears on ex-fixer Michael Cohen's radio show after years-long feud

President Donald Trump appeared Thursday, Aug 21 on the radio show of his former fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen, in a striking public reunion with the man who once called him a "Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain" and testified against him in both court and Congress.

For Cohen, who served prison time over what he said was covering up Trump's "dirty deeds," it marked the culmination of a behind-the-scenes thaw few would have thought possible several years ago.

Part of the interview aired Thursday evening on Cohen's 77 WABC radio programme, "When You Know, You Know"; the full 40-minute conversation is due to air Sunday at 5pm ET. It was, for the most part, an unusually friendly exchange, with only passing reference to the pair's turbulent history.

"They weaponised you, they weaponised a lot of people," Trump told Cohen. "I respect the fact you recanted, everything you said."

In an interview with CNN shortly before the radio segment aired, Cohen said he had resubmitted a pardon application to the White House — one denied under the previous administration — and had yet to receive a response, though he planned to follow up on Friday.

The truce places Cohen among a growing list of Trump loyalists who have had public falling-outs with the president only to find their way back into his favour, following figures such as Elon Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But the rift with Cohen was arguably the most personal. He once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump and stood by him through his political rise; after their split, his testimony at Trump's 2024 hush-money trial helped secure the criminal conviction that shadowed Trump's political comeback bid. Cohen has since criticised the prosecutors in that case — a shift that paved the way for reconciliation.

'Boss, remember when I was by your side'

Cohen has said the two spoke privately several times over the past year, and framed Thursday's interview by explaining his decision to move on. "Forgiveness does not mean amnesia," he said. "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. It is about having the courage to decide that yesterday will no longer dictate tomorrow."

At one point he sounded almost wistful for his years as one of Trump's most trusted aides: "Boss, remember when I was by your side," he said.

CNN reported that the reconciliation began after an unnamed "White House friend and insider" texted Cohen relaying the president's "genuine empathy" for what he had been through; the two later met privately several times at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

In a lengthy newsletter post promoting the interview, Cohen wrote that although the relationship had become "political blood sport," it followed 15 years of close friendship. "The good times don't cease to have existed because the bad times came afterward," he wrote. "We forgave."

Trump had made no public warmth toward Cohen before Thursday, though he had this year shared social media posts quoting his former lawyer's claims that he felt pressured by prosecutors to testify against him in both the hush-money and a separate civil fraud case.

Cohen was central to Trump's New York prosecution

Cohen was the star witness in Trump's 2024 hush-money trial, which ended in a 34-count felony conviction that carried no punishment. Over days of testimony, he placed Trump at the centre of a 2016 scheme to silence an adult film actor and a former Playboy model who said they had had affairs with him, testifying that Trump promised to reimburse him and was kept updated on efforts to bury the stories. "What I was doing, I was doing at the direction of and benefit of Mr. Trump," Cohen told the court.

That testimony marked the definitive break in a relationship already strained since 2018, when FBI agents searched Cohen's office, home and hotel room. He later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia, and to campaign finance violations tied to payments made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, receiving a three-year sentence.

Since then, Cohen has reframed his testimony as having come 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.

He also testified before Congress in 2019 alleging Trump had a history of misrepresenting asset values for favourable loans and tax benefits, and gave similar testimony in Trump's 2023 civil fraud trial in New York, which found Trump and his companies had exaggerated his wealth for decades. A New York appeals court later threw out the case's $550 million judgment; Trump has asked the court to overturn what remains of the ruling.

In his 2020 memoir, "Disloyal," Cohen was unsparing, branding Trump an "organised crime don" and "master manipulator" — though, foreshadowing Thursday's rapprochement, he also wrote: "I had and still have a lot of affection for him."