Michael Cohen’s journey from Trump fixer to MAGA pariah — to ‘the next Rush Limbaugh?’
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, erstwhile fixer and intermittent friend, is out of prison, back in the public eye — and calling out his haters.
Cohen has a new show on New York City’s Trump-friendly conservative talk radio station WABC, where, in his first episode Sunday evening, he took great lengths to detail his decades-long, on-again-off-again friendship with the president. The two, he said, are back on talking terms.
In fact, WABC’s billionaire owner, Trump ally John Catsimatidis, said the president personally approved Cohen’s new radio gig. In a country “that is so bombarded by fake news,” Catsimatidis said, Cohen offers “clarity and perspective to the conversation.”
“The president was in favor of the hiring,” Catsimatidis, who owns the popular New York City grocery store chain Gristedes, told Straight Arrow in a text message. “He believes Michael could be the next Rush Limbaugh.”
‘You’re a loser’
But that doesn’t mean that Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet for the president,” is in good graces with Trump’s most diehard supporters.
Cohen became, briefly, an ardent Trump critic — referring to him as “a conman” and “a cheat” — and was sent to prison after admitting he sent pre-election hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal on the president’s behalf. He was a key prosecution witness when Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records related to the payments.
Cohen told Straight Arrow in an email that he hopes to challenge “a mistaken belief that the loudest voice in the room is one that is heard.” But he’s using his new platform to clap back at a constituency he called “Camp Trump.”
“I truly understand why there is a divided opinion of me, especially on conservative talk radio,” Cohen said in a preview of his new show, “When You Know, You Know…,” which replaces a show hosted by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Such “divisiveness” is most pronounced, according to Cohen, among Trump’s most diehard adherents.
“If, in fact, you say something that doesn’t subscribe to their ideology, they automatically say, ‘You’re a traitor, you’re a backstabber, you’re a loser,’” Cohen said. In a segment on his show, called “Michael’s Mailbag,” Cohen dedicated airtime to shouting back at critics who have flooded him with “insanely graphic texts and DMs.”
“You want to be a texting tough guy with me, male or female?” Cohen asked. “That’s great. But understand, I too have the right to call you out. And I will.”
First on the air was a message from Russell and Cynthia who, Cohen said, are a husband and wife who “decided to tag team me.”
“‘Eff you Cohen, how much is Trump paying you now?’” Cohen read on air. “‘Go eff yourself, you’re probably a pedophile, a pedophile protector just like Trump is. You know exactly what Trump is because you work for him. Go crawl back under his desk and take care of business.’”
Cohen brushed off the message with a sign and a thank you.
“You are wonderful, wonderful people,” Cohen said, “and I’m certain that Shakespeare would be jealous of you.”
‘The anger, the pain, the history’
Despite using his platform to challenge his haters, Cohen told Straight Arrow that his show is just what the country needs in an era of divisive partisanship.
“The fact of the matter is that the tired majority has the biggest, loudest and largest voice out there,” Cohen said. “And that is my audience.”
Cohen opened his first show with a lengthy explanation of where he stands with Trump. The two have known each other since 2005, Cohen said. And, as in any friendships that stand the test of time, their bond has ebbed and flowed.
The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment from Straight Arrow.
A 15-year relationship between Trump and Cohen, he said during his show, was “swallowed by something much, much bigger than either one of us: politics, investigations, media battles, public pressure.”
“In warfare, unfortunately, relationships become casualties and ours was one of them,” he said. But now, Cohen said, the two have reconciled and he’s back in the president’s corner. Such mending, he said, should serve as inspiration for a divided nation.
“If Trump and Michael Cohen can sit across from each other after everything that happened,” he said, referring to himself in third person. “After the anger, the pain, the history — well, then maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.”
It’s a gamble that Catsimatidis is taking with his audience at WABC. The conservative AM station has also featured shows from other prominent figures in Trump’s orbit, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk and Roger Stone.
Cohen’s friendship with Trump is a story that “most Americans do not know,” Catsimatidis told Straight Arrow, but on WABC the president’s former fixer “will get that opportunity to correct the record.” Catsimatidis said Cohen “was offered several similar opportunities” but ultimately chose WABC as a preferred platform to “speak his truth.”
“Michael’s experience is deeply rooted in all things Trump,” Catsimatidis said. “Few people, outside of his family, know the president better.”
‘Set the facts straight’
Catsimatidis said that Cohen got the nod of approval from Trump, a president long known for embracing conspiracy theories and disinformation. Recently, for example, Trump’s social media feed has been flooded with posts containing AI-generated fake news.
But to Catsimatidis, Cohen is the guy for the job to “set the facts straight” in a divided nation where, he said, partisanship is “predicated on misinformation and disinformation.”
In a segment devoted to challenging the media, Cohen first turned to Trump’s favorite television news punching bag: CNN. He blasted the network for including comments from a satire account in its coverage of the health and whereabouts of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. To Cohen, this was more than a simple mistake — it was part of a deliberate plot.
“They’re just so willing to throw something on air in order to do what? Cohen said. “To divide us. To make us, once again, chaotic. To make us angry at one another. Hence, of course, the term ‘the tired majority.’”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
