Disloyal: A Memoir by Michael Cohen

Author:Michael Cohen
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2020-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

The email from T. Boone Pickens’s assistant to Rhona Graff. © 2020 Michael Cohen

Pickens sent an email to Rhona Graff, Trump’s assistant, suggesting the two businessmen talk, so Trump instructed me to call him about starting a lawsuit or issuing a press release. I soon had Pickens on the line, as he told me in his Texas drawl how outraged he was by CNBC’s high-handed attitude; we didn’t discuss the reason he’d been taken off the list. Like Trump, he was furious and insulted and he intended to do something about it, so I suggested I get Trump on the line. I patched Trump in and soon we were having a three-sided conversation bemoaning the terrible injustice of the poll. Both men praised the other, stoking and stroking each other’s egos, as they considered their options.

The call was certifiably insane, but I played along, offering my advice and counsel. A lawsuit would be expensive, it was agreed, without adding that the likely outcome would be the discovery of the fraud and the humiliation of their ego trips being exposed to the public. That was a story I knew my journalist connections would eat up; nothing was quite as exciting for the press as stories revealing the egomania of self-aggrandizing rich white men.

After the Pickens call, I was summoned to Trump’s office and instructed to call the reporters I knew to try to get them interested in a story about the terrible treatment Trump had received at the hands of CNBC. Trump wanted me to emphasize his ranking and make sure it was prominently discussed in any coverage.

“Do I discuss T. Boone Pickens as well?” I asked.

“No,” Trump said. “Make it about just me. He will do his own. He’s not my concern.”

I wasn’t surprised when there were no takers in the press. No one wanted to be treated like Trump’s PR flak, at least not in the legitimate press; corrupt tabloids like the National Enquirer or biased broadcasters like Fox were another story. The general counsel for CNBC eventually called me and pointed out that there was a disclaimer on the website of the poll explicitly providing that any candidate could be removed, without cause and for any reason. When I protested loudly, channeling Trump’s fury, the lawyer calmly said the Boss had been taken off the list and there would be no explanation given or apology forthcoming. It went without saying that the network might have figured out that Trump had cheated, and so I didn’t push the matter further. In the end, the poll came and went and barely registered in the public consciousness. The important thing, for Trump, was the printout he had of the poll showing him at number nine. He had hundreds of copies made and he added the poll to the pile of newspaper clippings and magazine profiles of himself on his desk that he would give to visitors. That was one of the supposedly big treats about gaining entry to Trump’s 26th floor

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