Donald Trump Praises Former Foe Michael Cohen in Wild Interview: 'They Broke You, Then You Did a Brave Thing'

President Donald Trump publicly praised his former attorney Michael Cohen during an interview that aired on Sunday, August 23, calling Cohen's decision to walk back his prior testimony "a brave thing.”

The highly unusual public reconciliation took place during Trump's appearance on Cohen's WABC 77 radio program in New York, marking an unexpected truce after years of intense legal and personal friction.

Trump directly thanked Cohen for what he described as recanting testimony against him.

“Look, you took it back; you recanted your testimony,” Trump said. “They forced you to do that. They threatened you with jail, they threatened you with everything if you didn’t go against Trump — and you took it back. I wouldn’t even be talking to you right now if you didn’t, to be honest. You did something very few people have done.”

Trump targeted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, claiming they ran a "weaponized government" that pressured Cohen. He noted that while authorities initially "broke" Cohen down, he respected that Cohen ultimately "came back.”

“A lot of people wouldn’t have been able to take it. You took it for a while, in all fairness, then they broke you down — but you came back. Look, Tish James and Alvin Bragg, w- what they did to you—d they used you, and what you did was actually a brave thing, because you said what they did was wrong. They forced you to say things you didn’t want to say; they forced you to say things that were false, because they have a threat with jail — and every other thing, probably, I don’t know, I never spoke to you about that — but probably the worst things that you can imagine,” he said.

Trump told Cohen, "They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized, like few have been," heavily critiquing the legal framework that led to their initial fallout.

Cohen served as Trump's personal lawyer and "fixer" before pleading guilty to federal criminal counts in 2018. He later served as the star witness in Trump's 2024 Manhattan criminal hush-money trial, which resulted in Trump's conviction.

Reports indicate that Cohen began seeking Trump's phone number as early as mid-2024 to mend fences, asserting he knew the president better than anyone else.

The two privately met multiple times over the past year before organizing the radio broadcast.

Shortly before the interview went live, Cohen confirmed to CNN that he had resubmitted a federal pardon application to the White House to clear his record from his 2018 conviction.

“I think it’s so amazing that you came out and you told the story and people respect you for doing it,” the octogenarian POTUS said.

Cohen stated that while some people respect his decision to reconcile with Trump, many hate him for his reversal and have flooded his inbox with fierce backlash.

Cohen, who lost jobs because of the reconciliation, pushed back on the criticism by stating, "The answer is actually much simpler than people want it to be. We forgave."