Michael Cohen accused Lara Trump and her family of throwing him under the bus and of being in a “dumpster cult of Trump.”
Cohen made fun of Trump on X, formerly Twitter, after he received an email from her titled, “My family is thankful for your continued dedication.”
“Really @LaraLeaTrump? And I’m thankful to you and your family for throwing me under the bus…waking me up and opening my eyes to smarten up and extricate myself from the dumpster cult of Trump. See you all soon!” Cohen posted on X, sharing a screenshot of the email.
Cohen is former President Donald Trump‘s ex-lawyer. In August 2018, he pleaded guilty to eight counts, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations, the latter of which he said Trump ordered to influence the 2016 presidential election. He served a three-year prison sentence.
Trump campaign senior advisor Steven Cheung told Newsweek: “Michael Cohen is an admitted liar, thief, perjurer and convicted felon. He has zero credibility, and any and all statements made by him about President Trump and others should be disregarded as the rantings of a deeply troubled, jealous, and sad individual who is clearly trying to rehabilitate his image by selling what’s left of his soul through lies and deception.”
Newsweek reached out to Michael Cohen via email and Lara Trump via her website for comment.
Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen, at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14. Cohen called the Trump campaign a “dumpster cult.”
David Dee Delgado/Getty images
Lara Trump is married to Donald Trump’s son, Eric, and has been a co-chair of the Republican National Committee since March 2024. She has been a vocal and visible member of the 2024 Trump campaign as the RNC co-chair and a speaker at the Republican National Convention.
Cohen has spent the years following his prison sentence—largely served at home—speaking out against Trump. Newsweek reported in early September that Cohen called his former boss’s new lawyers “the stupidest of all time.”
In a video on his YouTube channel from six days ago, Cohen claimed that Trump attacks women that he sees as a threat to him, such as singer Taylor Swift, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival for the presidency.
When contacted for comment, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Newsweek: “The media’s negative portrayal of President Trump and his treatment of women is entirely false. President Trump is loved by millions of women across the country, and those who know him personally, myself included, will tell you he’s supportive, generous, and kind. President Trump’s first-term economic policies uplifted women by putting more money in our pockets, and he also made expanding access to childcare and paid family leave top priorities in his Administration, and he will do so again.
“Now in Joe Biden‘s America, women are being raped and killed by illegal aliens and working mothers are struggling to buy basic groceries for their families. President Trump will make America strong, safe, and prosperous again for all women when he returns to the White House.”
Lara Trump speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, on July 16. Trump, the RNC co-chair, is campaigning for father-in-law Donald Trump.
Alex Wong/Getty images
Cohen also asks in the video on YouTube why nobody is calling for Trump to step down following the former president’s performance at his debate against Harris, as they did with President Joe Biden in June. He added that Biden “put country and party over self.”
Discussing the contrast between the two, Cohen said: “[Donald Trump] is unable to acknowledge any loss ever. It’s just outside of the realm of reality for him. He lives in a world where anything and everything he does is the best. Here’s the problem for Donald with that sort of ideology: nobody else thinks so.”
