Trump and Michael Cohen Reunite After Eight Years of Open Warfare - but a Pardon Request Hangs Over the Detente
President Donald Trump and Michael Cohen just did something that would have seemed almost impossible during the years when the former allies were attacking each other in courtrooms, congressional hearings, books and television interviews.
On August 20, Trump participated in a prerecorded telephone interview with Cohen for his WABC radio program, marking their first public conversation since their relationship collapsed more than eight years ago. The full interview runs roughly 40 minutes, with only part of it released Thursday and the remainder scheduled for Cohen's Sunday program.
The tone was strikingly cordial. Cohen repeatedly addressed Trump respectfully, at one point calling him 'boss,' while Trump told his former lawyer that prosecutors had 'weaponized' him and praised what Trump described as Cohen's decision to recant earlier statements.
But that last point requires an important correction. Cohen has not publicly withdrawn all of his sworn testimony against Trump. In a CNN interview immediately after the Trump conversation, Cohen said he was not retracting what he had said in the past and declined to revisit it.
The reunion is therefore real. A complete recantation is not. And another fact now sits over the entire reconciliation: Cohen has submitted a presidential pardon application to Trump.
This Was a Phone Interview, Not an In-Person Sit-Down
Trump did not physically sit down across from Cohen for the interview. The conversation was recorded by phone while Trump spoke from the White House.
That detail does not make the reunion less unusual. Cohen spent about 15 years in Trump's orbit and became known as his personal attorney and fixer before their relationship collapsed during the federal investigation into hush-money payments made before the 2016 election.
Cohen told CNN that the interview was their first public conversation in more than eight years. Reporting also indicates that some private contact had already occurred before the broadcast, making Thursday's exchange the public culmination of a quieter thaw rather than a completely spontaneous reconciliation.
The full recorded conversation was described as roughly 40 minutes long. WABC released about 15 minutes on Thursday, with Cohen saying the complete interview would air on his Sunday show, 'When You Know, You Know.'
The verified milestone is their first public conversation in more than eight years, not necessarily their first contact of any kind since the feud began.
The Tone Was Almost Unrecognizable Compared With Their Years of Hostility
The opening moments immediately signaled that this would not resemble the public warfare that defined the Trump-Cohen relationship after 2018.
Cohen began by revisiting his famous 2016 CNN appearance with Brianna Keilar, when he responded 'Says who?' after being confronted with unfavorable polling for Trump.
Trump responded by praising Cohen's work for him and then pivoted to a theme both men now emphasize: political and prosecutorial weaponization.
Trump told Cohen that authorities had weaponized him in an extraordinary way. Cohen replied that perhaps only Trump himself had experienced something comparable.
That exchange represented a remarkable reversal. Cohen spent years accusing Trump of corruption and abuse, while Trump repeatedly branded Cohen a liar, rat and disloyal former employee.
Trump Said Cohen 'Recanted Everything' - Cohen Says He Did Not
The most legally significant moment came when Trump praised Cohen for what he characterized as a sweeping reversal.
Trump said he respected the fact that Cohen had 'recanted everything' he previously said and called that a major development.
The problem is that Cohen's own public account does not support that sweeping claim.
Earlier this year, Cohen said he felt pressured and coerced by prosecutors and criticized aspects of the investigations that used him as a witness. Those statements plainly help Trump's argument that the prosecutions were politically driven.
But after the radio interview, CNN directly asked Cohen whether he was retracting what he had previously said. Cohen declined to go backward and said, in substance, that what he had said remained what he had said.
CNN had also asked him earlier in the year whether he had recanted his testimony on the witness stand. Cohen answered no and said he did not know why Trump was claiming otherwise.
Cohen has criticized prosecutors and said he felt pressured, but there is no basis for stating as fact that he has withdrawn all of his sworn testimony against Trump.
Why Cohen's Testimony Still Matters
Cohen was not merely a former employee who later criticized Trump from the sidelines.
He became a central prosecution witness in Trump's 2024 Manhattan criminal trial involving business records connected to the $130,000 payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
A New York jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump denied the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels, pleaded not guilty and has continued challenging the conviction through the courts.
Cohen also testified in other proceedings involving Trump, including New York's civil fraud litigation, and his credibility was repeatedly attacked by Trump's lawyers because Cohen himself had pleaded guilty to federal crimes, including lying to Congress.
That history is what makes even a partial reconciliation politically and legally significant. Trump spent years arguing that Cohen was fundamentally untrustworthy. Cohen spent years insisting that he had finally decided to tell the truth about Trump.
Cohen's later criticism of prosecutors may be politically useful to Trump, but it does not automatically invalidate prior testimony or erase court judgments in which that testimony was considered.
The 2016 'Says Who?' Moment Became the Bridge Back to Their Old Relationship
Cohen chose to begin the interview with a memory from the period when he was still one of Trump's most aggressive television defenders.
In 2016, CNN's Brianna Keilar told Cohen that Trump was trailing in polling. Cohen's response - 'Says who?' - became one of the most replayed moments of that campaign cycle.
During Thursday's reunion, Cohen told Trump that the following morning Trump had encouraged him to ignore the critics and keep fighting.
The story allowed both men to revisit the period before their relationship imploded, when Cohen's public role was to defend Trump rather than testify against him.
It also led directly into a discussion of current polling, where the old dynamic quickly resurfaced.
Trump Again Attacked Polling and the Media
Cohen told Trump that he had once spent significant time analyzing polls for him and suggested that the administration should more aggressively publicize what Cohen described as Trump's accomplishments.
Trump responded by saying the polls were 'crooked' and criticized many reporters as dishonest, while adding that he still believed some journalists were excellent.
He singled out The New York Times for criticism and argued that traditional media organizations had lost credibility with the public.
Those statements were consistent with Trump's longstanding attacks on unfavorable polling and major news organizations.
Cohen largely reinforced rather than challenged that framing, another striking contrast with the years in which he became a regular anti-Trump commentator.
Trump's descriptions of polls and news organizations as 'crooked' or dishonest are political judgments, not independently established facts.
Cohen Says the Relationship Is Being 'Resuscitated'
After the interview, Cohen was explicit that he views the relationship as moving in a different direction.
He told CNN that he and Trump had forgiven one another and described the relationship as being 'resuscitated.'
Cohen emphasized that forgiveness did not mean forgetting the past. He said the bitter history remained real but argued that he did not want it to dictate the future.
That language leaves plenty unresolved. Neither man used the radio appearance to methodically revisit the accusations, testimony and public attacks that defined their breakup.
Instead, they emphasized common grievances and shared memories, creating the appearance of a personal and political truce without resolving every factual disagreement between them.
The Pardon Application Is Now Impossible to Separate From the Story
Cohen has also confirmed that he is seeking a presidential pardon.
Before Trump returned to office, Cohen submitted a pardon application to President Joe Biden. Cohen says the Biden administration ultimately denied that request.
He then took the same underlying application and documentation, replaced the cover letter addressed to Biden with one addressed to Trump, and submitted it again.
Cohen told CNN that he had not personally asked Trump for a pardon during their private conversations or the radio interview. He also said he had not yet received confirmation that the Trump administration had formally logged the application and planned to follow up.
That distinction matters. Cohen is openly seeking clemency, but there is no verified evidence that Trump has promised it, agreed to consider it or conditioned the reconciliation on a pardon.
Cohen has submitted a pardon application. Trump has not publicly granted, promised or announced a pardon for him.
What a Presidential Pardon Could and Could Not Do
Cohen's federal convictions make him eligible to seek presidential clemency because the Constitution gives presidents broad authority to pardon federal offenses, except in cases of impeachment.
A pardon could provide relief from the legal consequences of Cohen's federal convictions, but it would not rewrite history or establish that his guilty pleas were factually false.
It also could not erase state-law matters because presidential pardon power applies to federal offenses, not state convictions or state civil judgments.
Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 to multiple offenses, including campaign-finance violations, tax crimes and lying to Congress. He was sentenced to three years in prison and ultimately served more than a year in custody before completing the remainder under home confinement and supervision.
Whether Trump sees clemency as justified is now a political question as well as a constitutional one.
The Interview Could Also Matter to Trump's Ongoing Legal Narrative
Trump continues to challenge the 2024 New York conviction, and Cohen's new criticism of the prosecutors who relied on him gives Trump's allies fresh material for that effort.
Some people in Trump's orbit have publicly argued that Cohen's statements about prosecutorial pressure vindicate Trump's longstanding claim that the case was weaponized against him.
That is a political argument, not a court ruling.
The conviction was returned by a jury after a trial in which Cohen was extensively cross-examined, and Trump's legal challenges must succeed through the appellate process rather than through a radio reconciliation with a former witness.
At the same time, a prosecution witness publicly criticizing the prosecutors who used his testimony is undeniably unusual and may become part of Trump's broader campaign to discredit the case.
Cohen's change in tone may affect political perceptions and future legal arguments, but it does not by itself overturn Trump's conviction.
A Reconciliation That Still Contains Contradictions
The Trump-Cohen reunion is compelling precisely because the old contradictions have not disappeared.
Trump now praises Cohen while still asserting that Cohen took back everything he previously said. Cohen accepts Trump's praise while publicly refusing to say that his old testimony has been withdrawn.
Cohen now says prosecutors pressured him, yet he also says he is not erasing the things he said about Trump in the past.
He describes forgiveness as genuine while simultaneously pursuing a pardon that only Trump can provide.
None of those facts proves that the reconciliation is insincere. They do mean that the political and personal incentives surrounding it cannot be ignored.
What Can Actually Be Said With Confidence
The strongest defensible conclusion is that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen have entered a genuine public detente after more than eight years of extraordinary hostility.
Trump participated in a prerecorded telephone interview for Cohen's WABC program on August 20. The full conversation was described as roughly 40 minutes, with only part released that evening and the remainder scheduled for Sunday.
The interview was unusually warm. Cohen called Trump 'boss,' the two reminisced about their years together, and Trump told Cohen that he had been politically weaponized.
Trump also said Cohen had recanted everything he previously said. That characterization is not supported by Cohen's own subsequent comments. Cohen has said he felt pressured by prosecutors, but he has also explicitly declined to retract his prior statements and testimony.
Cohen has confirmed that he resubmitted a presidential pardon application after an earlier application to President Biden was denied. He says he has not personally asked Trump for the pardon and, as of his CNN interview, had not received confirmation that the administration was processing the request.
Trump has not publicly promised Cohen clemency.
So the most remarkable part of the story is not that every dispute between the two men has vanished. It has not.
May you like
The remarkable part is that a former fixer who became one of the most damaging witnesses against Trump is once again speaking to him as an ally - while Trump, after years of calling Cohen a liar and a rat, is publicly welcoming him back into conversation.
Whether that thaw becomes a lasting political alliance, a pardon or simply one extraordinary media moment remains unresolved.
