Opinion | How Roy Cohn Shaped Trump -- and America

Roy Cohn, the lawyer and political fixer who died in the 1980s, remains a clear influence in both U.S. politics and pop culture decades after his rise. In a New York Times Opinion podcast episode, Carlos Lozada, Michelle Cottle and Vanderbilt historian Nicole Hemmer discuss “American Scoundrel,” a new biography by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark. Cohn became a national figure during the 1950s Red Scare as chief counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy, later becoming a pop culture villain. The discussion also links his 1970s–80s role as Donald Trump’s lawyer to patterns that still shape how power is exercised.