horecchio@businessinsider.com (Haven Orecchio-Egresitz)
Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, wrote in his new book that the president was a racist who praised South Africa’s Apartheid regime.- Trump said Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013, left South Africa a “sh*thole country,” Cohen wrote in “Disloyal: A Memoir.”
- Cohen had previously said in his testimony that the president once challenged him to name a country run by a Black person that wasn’t a “sh*thole.”
- “Disloyal: A Memoir” is set to be released on Tuesday.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump is a racist who praised Apartheid and criticized South African leader Nelson Mandela, his former lawyer Michael Cohen wrote upcoming book “Disloyal.”
When Mandela died in 2013, he was honored around the world for his legacy of fighting racism in South Africa. Not by Trump, though, Cohen wrote.
“Mandela f—ed the whole country up. Now it’s a s—hole. F— Mandela,” Cohen claims Trump said. “He was no leader.”
Trump, who launched his political career with the racist “birther” conspiracy, is known for making derogatory comments about countries with Black leaders.
“As a rule, Trump expressed low opinions of all Black folks, from music to culture and politics,” Mr. Cohen writes in the book, which is to be released Tuesday.
In Cohen’s 2019 testimony, he claimed that Trump had previously challenged him to name a country run by a Black person that wasn’t a “sh*thole.” He made the same claims in his book.
“He once asked me if I could name a country run by a Black person that wasn’t a ‘shithole.’ This was when Barack Obama was president of the United States,” Cohen said during his testimony.
In extracts from his upcoming memoir, which were published by CNN and the Washington Post, Cohen described his ex-boss’ hatred of Obama as obsessive.
His grudge went as far as hiring a lookalike “Fauxbama” and filming a bizarre video in which he “ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him, Cohen said in the book.
Cohen also alleged that Trump once called Kwame Jackson, a Black contestant on “The Apprentice,” a homophobic slur.
The White House has hit back at Cohen, describing him in a statement to the Washington Post as “a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress.”
Cohen was jailed last year for lying to Congress, and for election finance crimes which prosecutors claimed were committed at Trump’s behest.
“He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies,” the White House’s statement continued.
