Donald Trump's biographer tells
Newsmax TV the billionaire developer and presidential candidate's attack-dog persona was heavily influenced by two mentors: his father Fred Trump and politically-connected lawyer Roy Cohn.
"He told me that he's a fighter. He likes to fight. So he's always looking for that biggest battle to engage and this is a pretty big battle," Michael D'Antonio, author of
"Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success," said Thursday on The Steve Malzberg Show."
"[He] was tutored by the famous Roy Cohn of Army-McCarthy hearings and … later in New York City as kind of a political rainmaker."
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Cohn was chief counsel to the McCarthy Committee probing communism in the 1950s, and later, a high-powered New York attorney whose clients included Trump, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, mob kingpins Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and John Gotti and Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager.
"[Cohn was] very, very prominent, very influential. Again, reviled in some corners but beloved by many," D'Antonio said.
"Roy always had the story and he shot straight. He might shoot you in the heart, but he shot straight and so that attack-mode style is something Donald comes by naturally."
D'Antonio said Fred Trump, a successful real estate developer, also taught his son how to wheel and deal and go for the jugular.
"Fred Trump was a very hard-driving guy. He came out of the Depression with almost nothing. He had inherited some wealth, but like everybody he really suffered in the Depression," D'Antonio said.
D'Antonio's book is published by Thomas Dunne.
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