Michael Cohen’s Reunion Interview With Trump Was a Fever Dream

Michael Cohen’s highly anticipated reunion radio interview with President Trump was a masterclass in brownnosing. The president made a sleepy appearance on Cohen’s weekly talk radio program and podcast When You Know You Know on Thursday night, and the two men spent most of the time relitigating what they see as their persecution and trading stale old stories. “So I wanna go back to 2016 if we can, because you and I have obviously traveled a pretty rocky road together,” Cohen said near the beginning of the interview after playing the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War. “Do you remember, sir, when I went on CNN with Brianna Keilar and she told me that you were underwater in the polls and I responded with those famous two words, says who, which became some worldwide meme?”“A good advocate, and then they weaponized you like nobody’s ever been weaponized, like few have been,” Trump responded. “Well, maybe just you and I, sir.”“Yeah. Me too, but … mine was, mine was at a level that nobody’s ever seen before. But they weaponized you, they weaponized a lot of people. And, uh, I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump continued. “And that’s a big, that’s a big thing that you did.”The rest of the interview was effectively a stock speech for Trump, as he eventually devolved into ranting about polling, Iran, gas prices, and upcoming elections. “I think that we’re doing really well in the polls, the real polls. If I were running today, I think I’d win by 25 points. I think we’d win by a lot. The economy has never been stronger. We’re doing numbers that nobody’s ever seen before,” he said. (His approval rating fell to 33 percent this week, the lowest level of his presidency.)“Venezuela was amazing. And now with Iran, they will never have a nuclear weapon, he continued. “We’re essentially controlling and soon controlling the straits. We’re doing very well with Iran. The press doesn’t like to say that, although a lot of the press does say it, you know, because the Navy’s gone, the Air Force is gone, the leadership is gone.... I had [gas] down to $1.85 a barrel. And then I said, ‘But we have to make a journey to the Middle East because we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.’ And that’s what happened.... We’ve wiped them out, militarily wiped out.” What Cohen and Trump didn’t talk about was Cohen’s multiple politically advantageous transformations. He was first Trump’s longtime attorney—before being sentenced to three years in federal prison on charges related to his role as the middleman in Trump’s hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Then he had a #Resistance liberal hero arc, lambasting Trump as “a cheat, a mobster, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man” in his book and testifying against him in court. And now that Trump is back in power, he’s returned to bending over backwards to appease him. Cohen ended the episode with Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited.” Michael Cohen, whose testimony helped get Trump convicted of felonies, just interviewed Donald Trump after “recanting” what he said under oath. A podcast means nothing. This man is a liar as he always has been. Here’s a clip: pic.twitter.com/zu8Y0ipBVU— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 20, 2026 In the last week alone, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recalled twelve different products—a rate four times higher than the same week a year ago. In the past week, the FDA has discovered salmonella in granola, salad dressing, jalapenos, and animal food; glass in fruit popsicles; and metal in sourdough—just to name a few. Between August 14 and 20, 2025, the FDA recalled only three products. In the same week in 2024, the FDA recalled only two, according to the FDA website. It’s not immediately clear whether the increase in recalls can be attributed to increased enforcement or more hazardous food—but the rapid recalls really make you wonder, is this what making America healthy again looks like? This week of many public health announcements follows a national cyclospora outbreak that has sickened more than 13,000 people and caused two deaths. Last week, the FDA finally dispatched investigators to the facilities linked to the outbreak—nearly a month after linking the parasite to Taylor Farms. Before any of this, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly cut back on parasite monitoring.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants you to think that a weak job market is a good thing.CNBC’s Sara Eisen asked Bessent to comment on recent signs that the job market was cracking. Bessent downplayed the “noisy” numbers suggesting the job market was not stable.“The jobs that we’re seeing are going to Americans,” Bessent. “After the deportations that we’ve seen during the President Trump administration and the closing of the border, that’s like this unfettered migration, we don’t need to produce as many jobs.”Bessent on the latest bad jobs report: "After the deportations that we've seen and the closing of the border, we don't need to produce as many jobs" pic.twitter.com/kStWCiXAz5— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2026 In July, the U.S. labor market shed 23,000 jobs, a worrying sign when paired with high gas prices and tariff-based inflation. Notably, women accounted for 100 percent of that decline, losing 32,000 jobs while men gained 9,000. The report also revised down job growth numbers from the previous two months.For several months, the Trump administration has been pushing Americans to lower their expectations for job growth to reflect a labor market that doesn’t rely on undocumented immigrants. Americans don’t need jobs, apparently! It’s a strange spin for the simple fact that the president’s sweeping deportations are hurting the economy.Meanwhile, the Trump administration claims that more than 2 million immigrants have left the country since Trump reentered office—something that couldn’t possibly be true.The Trump administration’s plan to allow oil and gas extraction near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico is drawing concerns from UNESCO, the United Nations’s heritage organization.The Guardian reports that the organization is alarmed that the administration is getting rid of a buffer zone around the park, which is a world heritage site. “The world heritage committee has consistently considered extractive activities to be incompatible with world heritage status,” a UNESCO spokesperson told the paper.The committee has also “emphasized that projects proposed outside world heritage properties should not adversely affect their outstanding universal value—which are the features of the site that justify its inscription, and should be subject to appropriate impact assessments before decisions are taken,” the spokesperson added.The federal Bureau of Land Management has proposed getting rid of a 10-mile buffer zone protecting the area from any industrial activity, whether that’s uranium mining or fossil fuel drilling. Tribal leaders, environmental groups, and archaeologists have all warned that the site could be irreparably damaged from such activity. In a 12-day public comment period earlier this year, the government received close to 100,000 comments mostly opposed to ending the buffer zone.“This park offers an incredible transportive experience where you essentially go back in time 1,000 years to experience what the ancient Pueblo people saw,” Maude Dinan, New Mexico program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association, told The Guardian. “The buffer zone is incredibly important and removing it would completely change this experience.”The New Mexico park is one of 27 world heritage sites in the U.S., ranging from national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone to landmarks like the Statue of Liberty. The lone American site on UNESCO’s list of heritage sites whose preservation is in danger is Everglades National Park in Florida, thanks to nearby development and pollution. Chaco and other sites where the administration has pushed for development, mining, and drilling, such as Big Bend National Park, could soon join that list. Senate Democrats are initiating a probe into whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth placed one of his own supporters inside the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes.“Our offices have been informed that the Department of Defense assigned an active-duty Public Affairs officer to serve as a ‘deputy’ to Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer, reportedly without consultation with Mr. Lederer,” Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Jeanne Shaheen wrote in a Thursday letter to Hegseth. “On August 18, Mr. Lederer announced that he will retire after more than three decades at Stars and Stripes … citing fundamental differences between his understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes and the Department’s plans for the organization.”“The placement of an active-duty Public Affairs officer in the senior leadership of an organization whose credibility depends on its independence from the military chain of command raises serious questions.”Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Defense Department but has long had editorial independence. Installing an active-duty military officer in an editorial position at the newspaper in the midst of an extremely unpopular overhaul of Pentagon leadership—and an even more unpopular war on Iran—reeks of bias. The senators gave Hegseth a deadline of August 28 to offer a “detailed explanation” as to why he appointed the active-duty officer to oversee the outlet.“For generations, American service members, particularly those stationed overseas and in combat zones, have relied on Stars and Stripes for credible and independent news,” the letter concluded. “At this critical moment of leadership transition, that independence must not be compromised. We urge you to preserve that independence and provide prompt answers regarding these latest developments.”Hegseth has already demonstrated a desire for narrative control over what both civilians and service members know about his leadership. Earlier this year, the Pentagon fired the ombudsman responsible for guaranteeing the military paper’s editorial independence. Last year, he filled the Pentagon Press Corps with sycophants from the likes of ultraconservative organizations like Turning Point USA shortly after instituting a “pledge” for Pentagon reporters, requiring them to abstain from receiving any unauthorized material or publishing without approval. And the administration at large has fought with reporters covering troops’ low morale, low provisions, and severe injuries in the war on Iran.Hegseth has yet to officially respond.