Politics, as its worst, is a sewer, where you find creatures so disgusting, loathsome, despicable and abhorrent they are banned from all nine circles of Dante’s hell. In the last century of American politics, there is one person, and we use that word recklessly, that is so dark he makes Hannibal Lecter look Mr. Rogers.
No, it’s not Donald Trump
It is Roy Cohn, who created the monster that became Donald Trump.
“You knew when you were in Cohn’s presence,” Attorney Victor A. Kovner, who knew Cohn, said, “you were in the presence of pure evil.”
Cohn, a Jew who persecuted Jews and a gay man who persecuted homosexuals, advised at least four of the most abhorrent figures in American politics since the second half of the 20th century: Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Roger Stone, and Donald Trump.
Cohn became Trump’s mentor and consigliere, teaching him: “Never settle, never surrender; Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately; and no matter what happens, no matter how deeply into the muck you get, claim victory and never admit defeat.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/07/wheres-my-roy-cohn-trailer
Trump ultimately betrayed Cohn.
Cohn asked Trump if he could provide a room in his hotel for his lover, who was dying of AIDS. Trump agreed, then sent Cohn a bill for the room. Cohn ignored it but the bills kept coming. Trump once presented Cohn with a pair of diamond cuff links in gratitude for his years of advice. The diamonds were fake.
The friendship became strained in the last years in the life of Cohn, who had become disbarred and was himself dying of AIDS. Cohn could no longer help Trump and Trump turned away.
In the final days of Trump’s life, Cohn said, “Donald pisses ice water.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144
