Trump's downfall predicted in core lesson of his mentor: expert

A core lesson from a man many consider Donald Trump's mentor should warn the former president that his demise is coming, an expert on the man said Tuesday.

Award-winning investigative reporter Andrea Bernstein quoted excerpts from her limited series about Trump's relationship with controversial lawyer Roy Cohn, who worked with and mentored Trump during his early career.

The full episodes of Bernstein's series The Law According to Trump are on Slate's podcast Amicus.

In it, she points out Cohn's central philosophy. “No public man can indefinitely survive in the center of controversy," he said.

Speaking to the journalist, former U.S. Attorney Jim Zirin, who penned the book Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits, said, "This applies in spades to Donald Trump."

"I think that’s true as a matter of politics and I think it’s going to be true of Trump," he continued. "The media built him up, and as we saw in the Roman Colosseum, the thumbs-up can quickly turn to thumbs-down. The cult will break apart and people will go on with their lives."

Cohn was most known for serving as the chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) during the ongoing "red scare" of the 1950s, in which the Republicans used the tools of the Senate to accuse liberals or political foes of being communist.

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He then went on to work as Trump's lawyer. Bernstein and others have said many of Trump's tactics come from Cohn.

Read the interview excerpts here.