Michael Cohen spells out Donald Trump’s downfall
Shortly after the election I recall being told by some armchair Nostradamus possessing the categorical certainty of the smug that Joe Biden would become the 47th, not the 46th, president of the United States. The narrative went that Trump would resign the presidency before the inauguration and Mike Pence would briefly become the 46th president long enough to pardon Trump. Let’s take it at face value that such a move would absolve Trump from being charged at the state level, which it would not. Lacking the gift of precognition I had no idea if what Nostradamus Junior was saying was true or not. But I did know one thing, it didn’t feel like the kind of thing a malignant narcissist would do in any case.
Malignant narcissists don’t always do the obvious or practical thing in their best interest, and we need only look backward to the final couple of years in the life of Saddam Hussein for a stunning example. Hussein could conceivably still be president of Iraq to this very day had he cooperated with United Nations inspectors back then. But it’s not the kind of thing malignant narcissists do. Similarly, Trump resigning and letting Pence pardon him is also not the kind of thing malignant narcissists do, even if it would have worked.
My experience with malignant narcissists made me pretty sure of two things. The first was that Donald Trump would never resign the presidency. The second was that Trump would never, ever admit he lost the election. I said both things early and often, not because I can see into the future, but because of years of bitter experience with malignant narcissists.
People who have spent years living with or dealing with malignant narcissists know these kinds of things, and few know Donald Trump better than Michael Cohen. It is Michael Cohen’s contention, for example, that Allen Weisselberg will eventually flip on Trump, because very soon now Trump will abandon Weisselberg. Trump will stop paying for Weisselberg’s lawyers and he will start denying that he knows the guy very well, or even at all.
As insane as this sounds, as utterly self-immolating as it might appear to the rest of us, it just might be the truth. It’s the kind of thing malignant narcissists do. Sooner or later the self-anointed bubble of invincibility in which all such people live causes them to do or say things that stagger the sane and cautious among us.
“You start to believe your own nonsense until ultimately, what ends up happening is, he [Trump] stops paying your lawyers and says, ‘Why should I be paying your legal fees?’ ‘Well because we have a joint defense agreement and everything I’m doing I did at your direction and at your behest.’ So he will do the same thing to Allen because history repeats itself.”
Cohen thinks Weisselberg is still living under the self created delusion that Trump will always remain loyal to him. “What Allen should be doing is looking to see exactly what happened to me. Allen’s going to realize, hashtag welcome-to-under-the-bus-club.”
Does Cohen think Trump and his children will eventually be indicted? “The answer is yes, I do believe they all will be held accountable for their own dirty deeds … I do believe that the Trump family and Donald himself will be held accountable.” Cohen is in a unique position to know this. He’s worked with Trump long enough and is good enough to see patterns in what he knows to predict outcomes with a fair degree of accuracy. After all, he more or less predicted the January 6th insurrection. And he’s been interviewed by the Manhattan D. A. and the grand jury ten or more times.
Ultimately it’s Trump’s very own narcissism that will guarantee his undoing. He may be finished in any case, but if he has any chance of saving himself at this point you may be certain he can’t. His narcissism won’t let him. What’s wrong with Trump has been obvious to most of us for a long time now, from 2015 and well before. Or as Michael Cohen puts it, “Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone other than himself.” And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.