Of all things in Trump fixer’s stabby stabby tell-all book, CNN leads with 2012 ‘Trump fires Faux-Bama’ parody video

Trump “ritualistically belittled” Barack Obama “and then fired him,” according to CNN’s preview of a memoir by Michael Cohen. The anecdote apparently refers to an obscure parody video shot for the 2012 Republican convention.

Cohen is a former lawyer of President Donald Trump, who has authored a tell-all book promising readers insight into how bad and unfit for office his former boss is. The White House dismissed it as “fan fiction” by a convicted liar trying to cash in on past ties with the president. But with the genre of Trump-bashing prose as popular as ever, ‘Disloyal: A Memoir,’ is pretty much a guaranteed bestseller.

CNN was among the media outlets given an advance copy of the book, which is to be published on Tuesday. Its article on it leads with an anecdote about how Trump once expressed his disdain for Obama by hiring “a ‘Faux-Bama’ to participate in a video in which Trump ‘ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him.’”

No context was provided by CNN, but the description sounded familiar to some. In 2013, a spoof ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ video surfaced showing Trump giving Obama – who was played by an actor in the clip – a dressing down for doing a bad job during his first term. The production reportedly cost $100,000 and was made for the 2012 Republican National Convention, but was never shown at the event.

Details in the video match those shown in the photo of the “ritualistic belittlement” featured in Cohen’s book. Unlike the photo, the original video never shows the face of the actor, which prompted some commenters to ask CNN to find the man and ask him to break a non-disclosure agreement he presumably had signed and provide more juicy details.

According to previews, Cohen’s book has something to offer to every Trump-hating reader. He is described as a womanizer, a racist, a wannabe dictator and an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It claims that Trump never intended to win the presidency in the first place, that he did so nevertheless thanks to the media’s obsession with his candidacy, and that he won’t peacefully step down, if he loses in November.

Pretty much the only time Cohen breaks with the ‘orange man bad’ narrative is when he denies that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election. The conspiracy theory remains quite popular among Democrats, even though no evidence to prove it was ever found, despite thorough investigations.

Cohen is currently serving a federal sentence for financial crimes and perjury, which he committed while being employed by Trump. He was most notoriously involved in paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about an affair with Trump. In the book Cohen reportedly shows little remorse for his felonies, saying he was “railroaded into prison,” but laments helping Trump to win the White House.

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