Michael Cohen and Bob Woodward's Trump books: What to know

Aug. 14, 2020 2:43 PM PT

Just in time for the 2020 election, Michael Cohen and Bob Woodward have written books promising new insider information on President Trump.

“Rage,” a follow-up to Woodward’s 2018 bestseller, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” arrives Sept. 15, and Cohen’s “Disloyal” hits shelves Sept. 8. Already available is a buzzy foreword for the latter, which Trump’s former personal attorney released Thursday and signed, “Michael Cohen, Otisville Federal Prison, Otisville, New York, March 11, 2020.”

“As anyone in law enforcement will tell you, it’s only gangsters who can reveal the secrets of organized crime,” Cohen wrote in the tell-all (and promise-more) intro.

“If you want to know how the mob really works, you’ve got to talk to the bad guys. I was one of Trump’s bad guys. ... This is a book the President of the United States does not want you to read.”

Deeming himself formerly Trump’s “demented follower,” “fixer and designated thug,” Cohen’s foreword begins en route to Trump’s impeachment trial, where the lawyer testified earlier this year.

“I knew he wanted me gone before I could tell the nation what I know about him,” he wrote, apparently believing Trump wanted him dead. “Not the billionaire celebrity savior of the country or lying lunatic, not the tabloid tycoon or self-anointed Chosen One, not the avatar @realdonaldtrump of Twitter fame, but the real real Donald Trump — the man very, very, very few people know.”

The rest of the foreword levels multiple damning allegations against the president, accusing Trump of committing tax fraud, making “deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union” and cheating on First Lady Melania Trump with “clandestine lovers,” among other transgressions.

“I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.”

As opposed to Cohen, who calls himself “the least reliable narrator on the planet,” investigative journalist Woodward, who helped break open the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation, has positioned himself as a thorough and objective observer who “conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses” for “Rage,” according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

The forthcoming sequel to “Fear” also contains “notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents” from witnesses, as well as “25 personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that have not been public before.”

Additionally, the Pulitzer Prize winner’s account will offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Trump’s responses to the “pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest” in the United States, featuring multiple exclusive interviews with the president. Woodward did not have personal access to Trump for his last book, which has sold roughly 2 million copies to date, according to his publisher.

“Rage will be the foundational account of the Trump presidency, its turmoil, contradictions and risks,” the official description reads. “It is an essential document for any voter seeking an accurate inside view of the Trump years — volatile and vivid.”

“Rage” will be published by Simon & Schuster. “Disloyal” will be out from Skyhorse Publishing, which recently published Woody Allen’s memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” after Hachette canceled it in the face of public backlash.

Michael Cohen and Bob Woodward announced new Trump books. Here’s what you need to know

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