President Trump was lying when he claimed in 2011 that he had paid private investigators to go to Hawaii to dig up information on former President Barack Obama's birth certificate, Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday.
In his new book, Disloyal: A Memoir, Cohen writes about Trump pushing the false claim that Obama was not actually born in Hawaii. Cohen told Maddow that when Trump began talking endlessly about the conspiracy theory, he "saw that his poll numbers and his popularity and the number of times that he's gracing the cover of the newspaper is increasing." Trump didn't actually believe any of it, Cohen said, but "he doesn't care what he says, he doesn't care who gets hurt, so long as he wins."
After Trump claimed to have sent private investigators to Hawaii, he declared that they couldn't "believe what they're finding." Later, Trump refused to share what the PIs allegedly uncovered, telling CNN's Anderson Cooper it wasn't "appropriate" to reveal their discoveries and letting ABC News' George Stephanopoulos know "it's none of your business right now."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"He never sent anybody anywhere, he just said it and everybody sort of bought into it," Cohen said. "'Of course Donald Trump sent somebody, he's rich, right, who wouldn't send somebody if you wanted to prove your point?' Well, Donald Trump didn't do it because he didn't want to spend the money and he didn't believe it. His hatred for Barack Obama is plain and simple: He's Black, he went to Harvard Law, he graduated the top of his class, he's incredibly articulate, and he's all the things that Donald Trump wants to be, and he just can't handle it."
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Crossword: September 13, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Sudoku medium: September 13, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
