Trump and Michael Cohen’s first open conversation in more than eight years offers a highly visible sign that their bitter split has changed. It also arrives as Cohen says he is pursuing a presidential pardon.
Donald Trump and Michael Cohen have reconciled after their public feud, taking their renewed relationship to Cohen’s radio show in a rare public reunion. Trump appeared on Michael Cohen’s WABC program after more than eight years of estrangement, offering a visible sign that the former president and his former fixer have made amends—or at least found a way to speak again.
The conversation matters because Cohen was once Trump’s personal lawyer and one of his fiercest defenders before becoming a central witness against him. It also comes as Cohen says he has submitted a pardon application to the Trump administration, a request the White House says it is not currently tracking.
A remarkable break from the feud
For years, Trump and Cohen represented one of the most dramatic ruptures in modern political life. Cohen had described himself as Trump’s “pit bull” and once said he would take a bullet for him. Their alliance collapsed after Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 and implicated Trump in a hush-money payment scheme.
Trump repeatedly called Cohen a “rat” and a liar. Cohen, in turn, became a vocal Trump critic, published books titled Disloyal and Revenge, and later testified against Trump in the New York criminal case involving business records tied to payments to Stormy Daniels.
That history makes even a limited on-air exchange politically and personally consequential. This was not a routine interview between two distant public figures; it was a conversation between former confidants whose split became entwined with Trump’s legal and political battles.
What Trump told his former lawyer
In a taped portion of the WABC interview, Trump told Cohen, “They weaponized you, they weaponized a lot of people.” He also said he respected that Cohen had “recanted” what he said.
The excerpt did not include a detailed accounting of their past accusations or a public apology. Instead, much of the segment focused on the U.S. war with Iran and Trump’s record in office, according to CNN.
That restraint is notable. Both men have years of grievances they could have revisited publicly. Their decision to avoid a prolonged airing of those disputes gave the encounter the character of a controlled détente rather than a full reckoning.
Cohen calls it a resuscitated relationship
Cohen has described the relationship as “being resuscitated.” Ahead of the interview, he said that forgiveness was possible, while drawing a line between forgiving and forgetting.
“Forgiveness does not require amnesia,” Cohen said in a CNN appearance. “It requires the courage to stop allowing yesterday to dictate tomorrow.”
That framing leaves room for a reconciliation without requiring Cohen to withdraw every criticism he made in the past. It also allows Trump to engage with a former adviser without publicly conceding the substance of the claims Cohen made after their break.
Cohen declined to discuss publicly whether Trump apologized. He said he was comfortable with the words exchanged, but the precise terms of any private understanding between them remain unclear.
Private meetings came before the show
The radio appearance did not emerge from nowhere. CNN reported that a quiet reconciliation had already been underway, beginning with a message delivered to Cohen by someone he characterized as a White House friend and insider.
Cohen said the message conveyed Trump’s empathy for difficulties he was facing and that he responded by expressing hope that their long feud could end. Cohen said he was surprised when the intermediary quickly replied that it was time for the two men to meet.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump and Cohen met privately over the past year at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. The WABC interview therefore appears to be the public culmination of discussions that had been happening out of view.
Still, neither Trump nor Cohen has laid out a formal agreement, shared a detailed explanation for the change, or said what role—if any—political considerations played in the rapprochement.
The pardon question shadows the reunion
The timing has drawn attention because Cohen says he has submitted an application for a presidential pardon. He told CNN that he had not personally asked Trump for one and planned to follow up about the application after receiving no acknowledgment.
A White House official said the team that reviews clemency requests was not tracking Cohen’s request at the time of CNN’s inquiry. The official added that filing a request should not be interpreted as meaning anything beyond an individual choosing to submit one, and said the president is the ultimate decision-maker under the constitutional clemency process.
That response does not establish that Cohen will receive consideration, much less a pardon. But it ensures that the radio reunion will be viewed through a second lens: whether a repaired relationship could intersect with a request for presidential clemency.
Why the reconciliation carries weight
Trump and Cohen’s renewed contact underscores how quickly political and personal alliances can be reordered after years of conflict. Cohen was the only person to serve prison time over the hush-money scheme, and he has said he felt Trump and Trump’s associates left him to face the consequences alone.
Trump, meanwhile, was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to the payments. He denied the alleged affair with Daniels, received no jail sentence and appealed the conviction, according to CNN.
Those facts do not disappear because the two men held a radio conversation. What has changed is their public posture. The interview suggests that Trump and Cohen have moved from mutual destruction to a tentative relationship that each appears willing to acknowledge.
Whether that relationship becomes a durable alliance, remains a limited personal truce, or has any bearing on Cohen’s clemency request is still unknown. For now, the clearest outcome is the one listeners could hear: two men once defined by an extraordinary public break are talking again.
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