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Ruthless: How Donald Trump and Roy Cohn's Dark Symbiosis Changed America
One of the most prolific and influential investigative journalists of her generation, Marie Brenner has brought countless fascinating people—politicians, activists, journalists, and private citizens—to life through her writing. Now, for the first time, her profile of the nefarious relationship between Donald Trump and Roy Cohn is available as an audio download read by the author.
New York attorney Roy Cohn—infamous since the 1950s from his stint as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel—and Donald Trump first met in 1973 when Trump was still trying to make a name for himself as a real estate developer while fighting discrimination charges against his family’s business. After their chance meeting at a Manhattan disco, Cohn went to work defending Trump, starting a business and personal association that endured in various forms until Cohn’s death in 1986.
Brenner first started reporting on the Trump/Cohn dynamic back in 1980, and she brings to her assessment an incomparable legacy of covering both subjects. As Brenner writes, Cohn “was always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in [Trump’s] way,” serving to launch and sustain Trump’s early real estate career.
More than legal representation, however, Cohn offered Trump a way of seeing the world—and the opportunities for seeking advantage within it—that still inform Trump’s approach to politics and governing. As Brenner reports, then president-elect Trump told mutual associate Roger Stone another major character in Ruthless—on the day after his unexpected electoral victory, “Wouldn’t Roy love to see this moment? Boy do we miss him.”
Spanning over 50 years of US history, peopled both with characters long dead and current newsmakers still in today’s headlines, Ruthless is an eye-opening must-listen for anyone who wants to understand how the nation got to where we are today.
New York attorney Roy Cohn—infamous since the 1950s from his stint as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel—and Donald Trump first met in 1973 when Trump was still trying to make a name for himself as a real estate developer while fighting discrimination charges against his family’s business. After their chance meeting at a Manhattan disco, Cohn went to work defending Trump, starting a business and personal association that endured in various forms until Cohn’s death in 1986.
Brenner first started reporting on the Trump/Cohn dynamic back in 1980, and she brings to her assessment an incomparable legacy of covering both subjects. As Brenner writes, Cohn “was always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in [Trump’s] way,” serving to launch and sustain Trump’s early real estate career.
More than legal representation, however, Cohn offered Trump a way of seeing the world—and the opportunities for seeking advantage within it—that still inform Trump’s approach to politics and governing. As Brenner reports, then president-elect Trump told mutual associate Roger Stone another major character in Ruthless—on the day after his unexpected electoral victory, “Wouldn’t Roy love to see this moment? Boy do we miss him.”
Spanning over 50 years of US history, peopled both with characters long dead and current newsmakers still in today’s headlines, Ruthless is an eye-opening must-listen for anyone who wants to understand how the nation got to where we are today.
- GenresNonfiction
Audible Audio
Published August 21, 2018
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 20, 2021
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: No.)
(Digital: No).
*Audio: ©8/21/2018; 978-1508278269; Simon & Schuster Audio; Duration 00:46:18; 1 part; unabridged
(Film: No.)
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Listening to “Rage” by Bob Woodward inspired Don (hubby) to mention that he’d love to read about Roy Cohn whom Donald had a close relationship with and saw as a mentor, so a search for Roy Cohn on the Overload library app brought this book up.
In this short audiobook (it’s only available in that format) we learn about the lawyer, Roy Cohn’s role with the Trump family, his strategies of dealing with the media (always attack—never explain), and his strategies in dealing everyone else (not how you play the game, but how you win), and of the devoted admiration Donald held for him as a mentor.
AUTHOR:
Marie Harriet Brenner (12/15/1949): According to Amazon, “Marie Brenner is an author and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has published five books, including Great Dames: What I Learned from Older Women and the bestselling House of Dreams, The Bingham Family of Louisville. She joined the staff of Vanity Fair in 1985. Brenner has also been a contributing editor for New York magazine and the New Yorker, and has contributed articles to the New York Times Magazine and Vogue. She is the winner of six Front Page awards for her journalism and the Frank Luther Mott Kappa Tau Alpha Award for research, and her 2003 investigation of the rise of anti-Semitism in France, ""France's Scarlet Letter,"" made international news. Her expose of the tobacco industry, ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"", was the basis for the 1999 movie The Insider, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Her article ""Erotomania"" became the Lifetime movie Obsessed. Brenner lives in New York City.”
NARRATOR:
Marie Harriet Brenner (12/15/1949): According to Wikipedia, Marie “is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair.[1] She has also written for New York, The New Yorker and the Boston Herald[2] and has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.[3] Her 1996 Vanity Fair article on tobacco insider Jeffrey Wigand, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", inspired the 1999 movie The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Her February 1997 Vanity Fair article "American Tragedy: The Ballad of Richard Jewell" partially inspired the 2019 film Richard Jewell directed by Clint Eastwood.[4]”
I probably would have preferred a professional narrator, but Marie did all right.
GENRE:
Biography, non-fiction, History
SUBJECTS:
President Trump, politics, Ray Cohn, social engineering, legal defense strategies, media defense strategy, sexual orientation
SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From the publisher’s promo:
“New York attorney Roy Cohn—infamous since the 1950s from his stint as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel—and Donald Trump first met in 1973 when Trump was still trying to make a name for himself as a real estate developer while fighting discrimination charges against his family’s business. After their chance meeting at a Manhattan disco, Cohn went to work defending Trump, starting a business and personal association that endured in various forms until Cohn’s death in 1986.
Brenner first started reporting on the Trump/Cohn dynamic back in 1980, and she brings to her assessment an incomparable legacy of covering both subjects. As Brenner writes, Cohn “was always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in [Trump’s] way,” serving to launch and sustain Trump’s early real estate career.
More than legal representation, however, Cohn offered Trump a way of seeing the world—and the opportunities for seeking advantage within it—that still inform Trump’s approach to politics and governing. As Brenner reports, then president-elect Trump told mutual associate Roger Stone another major character in Ruthless—on the day after his unexpected electoral victory, “Wouldn’t Roy love to see this moment? Boy do we miss him.”
Spanning over 50 years of US history, peopled both with characters long dead and current newsmakers still in today’s headlines, Ruthless is an eye-opening must-listen for anyone who wants to understand how the nation got to where we are today.”
(Sorry, there is no text for this and I’m a poor transcriber of audio, so no direct quote on this one.)
RATING:
4 stars. Well researched and Informative.
STARTED-FINISHED
9/16/2021 – 9/18/2021
(Print: No.)
(Digital: No).
*Audio: ©8/21/2018; 978-1508278269; Simon & Schuster Audio; Duration 00:46:18; 1 part; unabridged
(Film: No.)
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Listening to “Rage” by Bob Woodward inspired Don (hubby) to mention that he’d love to read about Roy Cohn whom Donald had a close relationship with and saw as a mentor, so a search for Roy Cohn on the Overload library app brought this book up.
In this short audiobook (it’s only available in that format) we learn about the lawyer, Roy Cohn’s role with the Trump family, his strategies of dealing with the media (always attack—never explain), and his strategies in dealing everyone else (not how you play the game, but how you win), and of the devoted admiration Donald held for him as a mentor.
AUTHOR:
Marie Harriet Brenner (12/15/1949): According to Amazon, “Marie Brenner is an author and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has published five books, including Great Dames: What I Learned from Older Women and the bestselling House of Dreams, The Bingham Family of Louisville. She joined the staff of Vanity Fair in 1985. Brenner has also been a contributing editor for New York magazine and the New Yorker, and has contributed articles to the New York Times Magazine and Vogue. She is the winner of six Front Page awards for her journalism and the Frank Luther Mott Kappa Tau Alpha Award for research, and her 2003 investigation of the rise of anti-Semitism in France, ""France's Scarlet Letter,"" made international news. Her expose of the tobacco industry, ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"", was the basis for the 1999 movie The Insider, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Her article ""Erotomania"" became the Lifetime movie Obsessed. Brenner lives in New York City.”
NARRATOR:
Marie Harriet Brenner (12/15/1949): According to Wikipedia, Marie “is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair.[1] She has also written for New York, The New Yorker and the Boston Herald[2] and has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.[3] Her 1996 Vanity Fair article on tobacco insider Jeffrey Wigand, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", inspired the 1999 movie The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Her February 1997 Vanity Fair article "American Tragedy: The Ballad of Richard Jewell" partially inspired the 2019 film Richard Jewell directed by Clint Eastwood.[4]”
I probably would have preferred a professional narrator, but Marie did all right.
GENRE:
Biography, non-fiction, History
SUBJECTS:
President Trump, politics, Ray Cohn, social engineering, legal defense strategies, media defense strategy, sexual orientation
SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From the publisher’s promo:
“New York attorney Roy Cohn—infamous since the 1950s from his stint as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel—and Donald Trump first met in 1973 when Trump was still trying to make a name for himself as a real estate developer while fighting discrimination charges against his family’s business. After their chance meeting at a Manhattan disco, Cohn went to work defending Trump, starting a business and personal association that endured in various forms until Cohn’s death in 1986.
Brenner first started reporting on the Trump/Cohn dynamic back in 1980, and she brings to her assessment an incomparable legacy of covering both subjects. As Brenner writes, Cohn “was always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in [Trump’s] way,” serving to launch and sustain Trump’s early real estate career.
More than legal representation, however, Cohn offered Trump a way of seeing the world—and the opportunities for seeking advantage within it—that still inform Trump’s approach to politics and governing. As Brenner reports, then president-elect Trump told mutual associate Roger Stone another major character in Ruthless—on the day after his unexpected electoral victory, “Wouldn’t Roy love to see this moment? Boy do we miss him.”
Spanning over 50 years of US history, peopled both with characters long dead and current newsmakers still in today’s headlines, Ruthless is an eye-opening must-listen for anyone who wants to understand how the nation got to where we are today.”
(Sorry, there is no text for this and I’m a poor transcriber of audio, so no direct quote on this one.)
RATING:
4 stars. Well researched and Informative.
STARTED-FINISHED
9/16/2021 – 9/18/2021
Displaying 1 of 1 review