Donald Trump and Michael Cohen Bury the Hatchet in Surprise Radio Reunion

President Donald Trump and his former "fixer" Michael Cohen seem to have reconciled following a stunning radio reunion. Trump, 80, appeared on Cohen's 77 WABC-AM radio program by phone on Thursday, August 20, marking a surprising turn in their previously fractured relationship. The interview, part of which aired Thursday evening with the full broadcast scheduled for Sunday, was an exceptionally friendly affair—a remarkable development given the bitter history between the two men.

Cohen, who once called Trump a "Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain" and testified against him in court and before Congress, introduced the segment with the 1975 War song "Why Can't We Be Friends" and closed it with Peaches & Herb's "Reunited". "Here we go!" Cohen exclaimed as the music faded. "Mister President!!!" Trump's response was characteristically flat: "Hello, Michael. How are you, Michael?"

From "Take a Bullet" to Bitter Enemy

The split between Trump and Cohen was perhaps the most personal of all the president's public fallouts. Cohen once boasted that he would "take a bullet" for Trump and stood by his side during his political rise. He served as Trump's personal attorney and fixer for more than a decade, handling sensitive matters during the 2016 campaign.

But their relationship unraveled spectacularly in 2018 when federal investigators began examining Cohen's business dealings. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts related to campaign-finance and financial violations in August 2018, which implicated Trump for allegedly ordering payouts to women who claimed they had affairs with him, which Trump denied. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

By 2024, Cohen had become the star witness in Trump's criminal hush-money trial in New York, testifying about payments made to a porn star. His testimony helped secure Trump's criminal conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, making Trump a convicted felon. Trump, for his part, had called Cohen a "liar" and a "rat".

A Rocky Road to Reconciliation

The interview itself was a nostalgic affair, with Cohen steering the conversation toward their shared history. "You and I have obviously traveled a pretty rocky road together," Cohen told Trump. He recalled his viral 2016 CNN interview with host Brianna Keilar, where he famously responded "Says who?" when told Trump was "underwater in the polls".

Trump responded sympathetically, telling Cohen: "They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized, like few have been. They weaponized you; they weaponized a lot of people". He praised Cohen for having "recanted everything you said," adding: "That's a big thing that you did. That's a very big thing".

However, Cohen's former attorney, Lanny Davis, has publicly contradicted the president's narrative, telling CNN it is not true that Cohen "recanted anything that he testified under oath".

The Pardon Application

Ahead of the radio interview, Cohen appeared on CNN's The Lead and revealed that he had resubmitted a pardon application to the White House that had been denied by the previous Biden administration. He told anchor Jake Tapper that he had simply taken the same application, "rewrote the cover letter, removing the name of President Joe Biden and inserting the name President Donald Trump".

Cohen said he had not received any acknowledgment of the application and planned to follow up on Friday. However, a White House official told PEOPLE that the team reviewing clemency requests is "not tracking this request at this time". The official emphasized that submitting a pardon request "should not be interpreted to mean anything other than an individual has chosen to submit a request".

When asked directly by Tapper whether he had asked Trump for a pardon, Cohen replied: "I have not". He has not asked Trump directly about it.

"Forgiveness Does Not Mean Amnesia"

Cohen offered a philosophical reflection on their reconciliation. "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".

He explained that although their relationship became "political blood sport," there were 15 years of close friendship between them. "The good times don't cease to have existed because the bad times came afterward," Cohen wrote in his online newsletter. Simply, he said, "We forgave".

When speaking about his relationship with Trump on CNN, Cohen said it was "being resuscitated". He and the president have had several conversations over the past year, with Cohen describing their reconciliation as rooted in a shared sense of betrayal. He told CNN that he and Trump have met privately three times and reconciled since their falling out.

A Pattern of Reconciliation

The truce with Cohen follows a familiar pattern for Trump, who has a well-documented tendency to welcome back people who have publicly feuded with him. Others who have found their way back into the president's good graces include Elon Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The interview also covered Trump's familiar talking points on Iran, the economy, and immigration with Trump even claiming he would win by 25 points if he were to run for reelection.

The reunion marks the first public conversation between the two men in eight years. Cohen described the exchange as "easy" and "familiar" after the bitter split that defined much of Trump's first term. It was, by all accounts, a remarkable turn in one of the most personal and public feuds in modern American politics.