Michael Cohen says his former boss Donald Trump is capable of “absolutely anything and everything” should he return to the White House now that the Supreme Court has granted presidents total immunity for official acts.
“You allow your mind to wander into the farthest level of dystopia, and then you will finally get a small glimpse into just how far that he will push this,” he said Tuesday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House.”
“There is no limit to what he and his sycophants that will be there in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will be successful in at least attempting to do,” he added.
Cohen sounded the alarm over Project 2025, an extreme policy playbook for a second Trump term crafted by multiple former Trump White House advisers who would also likely join a future administration. Trump has tried to distance himself from the document in recent days.
Cohen predicted that journalists and others on Trump’s “enemies list” could all be targets.
“Donald already has a blueprint of what he needs to do, and that’s weaponizing the Department of Justice, weaponizing government, which he said he was also going to do,” Cohen said. “Every person that works in government will be working not for the United States government, but for him.”
Among the policies in the Project 2025 proposal is a scheme to reclassify government workers into a category that makes them much easier to fire. Experts have said the move could pave the way for authoritarianism and that it would fundamentally change the nature of federal government.
Trump has also openly vowed to seek retribution against enemies should he win the election.
Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney, testified extensively against Trump at his Manhattan hush money trial earlier this year. Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump also faces three other criminal indictments. Should he return to the Oval Office before they go to trial, he could order the Justice Department to dismiss the two federal cases against him.
Cohen served prison time on campaign finance and other financial charges after he helped facilitate hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election to silence women who said they had extramarital affairs with Trump.