How This Twisted Mentor Taught Trump the Dark Power of the C-Word

Three hours after he saluted the arriving coffins of four service members killed in his unpopular war of choice in Iran, President Donald Trump traveled from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to address a political rally in Marietta, Georgia.

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After receiving record boos at the World Cup and the NBA Finals, Trump filled the Wheeler High School gym with the sort of cheers he craves when he announced he had given a ride on Air Force One to one of the fallen’s parents, who happen to live nearby.

Many other people across the country were questioning not just Trump’s leadership, but his very sanity. Part of Trump’s plan to counter his more strident political foes became apparent 37 minutes into his hour and 17-minute speech, when he ventured into a variation on the same big lie that his mentor parlayed into early prominence more than seven decades ago.

“The radical left is actively trying to destroy our children’s future with the disaster known as communism,” he told the crowd. “It’s communism.”

Trump had been in grammar school in the early 1950s, when 20-something Roy Cohn served as U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s chief strategist in whipping up the Red Scare. What could accurately be called a witch hunt generated the fear that communists were everywhere, bent on destroying the American way of life. McCarthy had been vilifying a junior lawyer for the U.S. Army when a more senior Boston attorney named Joseph Welch asked a transformative question during a nationally televised hearing.

“Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator,” Welch said. “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”

That broke the spell. The Red Scare ended and McCarthy tumbled into disgrace. Cohn returned to his native New York, where he used the same tactics to accrue power and influence. He chanced to meet Trump at the New York night spot Le Club in 1973.

At the time, Trump’s family real estate business had been sued for racial discrimination in renting its many apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. The problem was the Trumps were guilty, and the government had stacks of records where a “c” in the upper corner signified the applicant was a person of color. Another major New York real estate company had just settled a similar suit, and Trump was initially inclined to do the same. But Cohn advised him to “fight, fight, fight.”

Cohn became Trump’s strife coach. Deny, deny, deny. Countersue. Refuse to settle, at least until the press has lost interest. If you do then settle, declare victory. Never acknowledge defeat. Never apologize.

Trump reportedly called Cohn 20 times a day or more, and the Roy Way became the Donald Way.

Trump knew that Cohn had been closeted gay while mounting the Lavender Scare at the same time as the Red Scare, driving gays as well as supposed communists from government service. But Trump did not step away from Cohn until he became visibly ill with AIDS. Trump did go to Cohn’s funeral in 1987, but that was one time he did not seek center stage. He stood at the back and did not speak.

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Cohn’s diabolical hypocrisy was explored in Tony Kushner’s 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America. Nathan Lane played Cohn on Broadway. Al Pacino had the role in the HBO production. The relationship between Trump and Cohn is explored in the 2024 film The Apprentice. Jeremy Strong is Cohn. Sebastian Stan is Trump.

In the 2026 real-life second term, the actual Trump continues to be guided by Cohn’s principles without principle. But lies, insistent denials, and refusal to accept defeat or admit mistakes or apologize can alienate voters over time, generating more boos than cheers.

And, as he faces growing disapproval, Trump is seeking the power of the same big lie that initially elevated his mentor. Trump was 8 years old when Cohn and McCarthy were fear-mongering with no decency. Trump himself is now at it 72 years later.

“This isn’t the Social Democrats, this is communists,” Trump, 80, told the crowd in Marietta on Wednesday. “As I said in my recent address at Mount Rushmore,…the communists want to take it down …They want to blow it up…These people are crazy.”

He hyper-charged the Cohn con as he continued.

“Communism is the single greatest threat to our country and its history, including even World War I and World War II, Pearl Harbor, 9/11. I think it’s the greatest threat that I’ve ever seen to our country. These people are stone-cold crazy. And it is the enemy of the free people everywhere and everywhere in the world.”

He was not done.

“They want to give everyone, everything away. You want free rent? You want a free house? What they don’t say is that a year from now, there’ll be absolute squalor, turmoil, and death.”

He had gone beyond Cohn to the Dead Scare.

“It goes back thousands of years by different names, but that’s the way it happens all the time. It’s squalor, it’s poverty. It’s death, it’s destruction. And that’s why we declare again today that the United States of America will never be a communist country.”

That roused cheers and chants of “USA! USA! USA!” Trump took a swipe at Sen. Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Democrat who had dismantled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with facts during Tuesday’s hearing on funding for the Iran war. Trump called him a “Democrat communist.”

“He reminds me of Pinky Herman,” Trump said. “You ever see Pinky?”

Trump apparently meant the comedy character Pee-wee Herman. But he also seemed to be playing off the word “pinko,” which means leaning toward communism. The term originates from the 1920s and is, like many of Trump’s views, a relic of earlier times.

Ahead to the past!

“America is back, and stronger than ever before, and I’m telling you, it’s only going one way, it’s going up,” he said. “As long as we keep our current thinking, our current system, it’s going up. If you go the other way, nothing ever succeeds. I made the statement once, with communism, everything turns to s–t, okay?”

He ended the speech with the usual “Make America Great Again.” The difference was he was now reverting to the time of the Red Scare.

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