'Didn't have the guts': Trump shames Michael Cohen for shunning courtroom face-off

'Didn't have the guts': Trump shames Michael Cohen for shunning courtroom face-off
(Photo of Trump by Gage Skidmore/Flickr Michael Cohen MSNBC screengrab)

Donald Trump is calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a coward for failing to face him in court – a decision Cohen says was due to an injury that has left him in pain.

Trump was in court Tuesday despite being separately called for a deposition in the case of two fired FBI agents, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. Cohen along with other former Trump Org employees, are witnesses in the New York fraud case that's expected to continue for a few more weeks.

The former president needled his ex-lawyer outside the courtroom, saying that he "didn't have the guts" to appear, ABC News reported. However, it doesn't mean that Cohen won't appear at all throughout the case – he told Raw Story that he still intends to give testimony.

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“Unfortunately, I need to attend to a pre-existing medical condition that impedes my ability to testify this upcoming week," Cohen said in a statement last week. "Rest assured, I will testify at the earliest opportunity.”

“I am thankful the medical condition, while incredibly painful, does not require an immediate procedure," said Cohen in an update to Raw Story Monday. "I anticipate appearing as soon as the pain subsides. When I do testify, I am certain Donald will be in attendance, sitting with his lawyers at the defendant’s table."

While Cohen hasn't given specifics, the implication is that he might be using pain medication. His testimony might then be called into question.

“If I was afraid of Donald, I wouldn’t have written two New York Times bestsellers, testified before the Mueller team, seven congressional committees, 23 appearances before the Manhattan DA, and provided information to the [New York attorney general] that is the basis of this trial. Looking forward to seeing you in court very soon!” he text messaged Raw Story Tuesday.

He also said he's feeling "lousy."

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White House Faith Advisor Paula White-Cain's attempt to rehabilitate the president's religious image during a Fox News appearance backfired spectacularly Saturday night, triggering a wave of mockery after claiming he attended Saturday and Sunday school up to three times a week as a child.

White-Cain made the claim during a conversation with Laura Trump, telling Fox viewers that "many people don't know about the upbringing of President Trump" before adding that he "went to, sometimes, three times a week to, he said, depending on the teacher, to Saturday school, Sunday school, church."

"Church was a big part of his life," she insisted.

The internet immediately noticed the math didn't add up.

"That's because he couldn't [expletive] count," former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann chided on X.

Attorney Bradley P. Moss was equally unimpressed. "That math ain't mathin, freak case," he wrote.

Journalist Helen Kennedy offered a more cutting interpretation. "Because his parents couldn't stand having him home," she wrote.

Podcaster Hemant Mehta took a more sarcastic tack. "Was he also raised in a log cabin he built?" he asked.

The political commentating account Molly Ploofkins simply added, "I'm sorry, what?"

Trump has leaned heavily into religious imagery during his second term, frequently invoking God's blessing and surrounding himself with evangelical allies like White-Cain.


White-Cain: Many people don’t know about the upbringing of President Trump. He went sometimes three times a week to Saturday and Sunday school.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) April 4, 2026 at 8:07 PM


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Renowned historian Timothy Snyder leveled two explosive accusations against President Donald Trump: that his proposed 50% defense budget increase could be a bribe to secure military loyalty for a coup attempt, and that a staged domestic terror attack is his best remaining path to nullifying elections.

Snyder, a Yale historian recognized as one of America's foremost scholars of authoritarianism, made both cases in a Saturday Substack post laying out five historical scenarios through which Trump could exploit the ongoing U.S.-Iran war to nullify the 2026 midterms and seize permanent power.

On the defense budget, Snyder was unambiguous.

"The war has not been run in a way that brings military commanders to trust the president. Again, one has to see Trump’s proposal to increase the defense budget by nearly 50% as a kind of desperate bribe. There are sound strategic reasons why it is a terrible idea, but there is also a political one," he wrote.

Snyder argued the proposed increase is "meant as a payoff for officers, soldiers, and sailors -- people he has openly disrespected his entire life, people whose funerals he treats as an opportunity to sell his own branded merchandise -- to assist him in a coup against Americans."

On the false flag scenario, Snyder drew a direct line to Vladimir Putin's 1999 apartment bombings, which were staged attacks that helped launch Putin's march toward dictatorship. He called Trump "Putin's client in the White House."

"Some variant of terrorism is Trump’s best bet. And so one should be (preemptively, now) skeptical of Trump’s account of any future terrorist attack; we can be sure that, whatever its true origins and character, Trump will provide a self-serving account meant to serve a coup and a dictatorship," Snyder wrote.

He warned Trump would exploit any such event to "discredit or undo elections."

Snyder argued Trump's position is ultimately weak, but only if Americans actively resist.

"He can only carry out a coup if we decide to obey in advance: to pretend that wartime pretexts for coups are never used, although history instructs us that they are; and then to offer our surprise to Trump as the unique political resource that can transform his weak position into a strong one," he noted.

Second Lady Usha Vance triggered a flood of mockery Saturday after she told Fox Viewers there is a litany of misconceptions about her husband, who has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of ridicule and memes.

Vice President JD Vance has faced backlash from social media commenters in recent years after agreeing to become Trump's running mate, particularly over Trump's awkward 2028 snub, a joke that didn’t land at a firefighters' event, and a widely mocked WWII history mistake.

This week, however, it was his wife who found herself buried by online critics.

"What do you want America to know about your husband," Usha Vance was asked on "Saturday in America with Kayleigh McEnany."

"I know it's been asked in reverse, but what's something we don't know that you want America to know?" asked McEnany.

The second lady cracked a wide grin as she prepped her answer.

"It's hard because he's written a book, he's given a lot of speeches," she began. "Um, there's so many misconceptions about him. He is just the nicest funniest guy. He makes everything an adventure. He's really just a wonderful person to be around. Our family has so much more joy because he is a part of it. I wish that people saw more of that."

But his past remarks, including a racist lie that Haitian immigrants were eating peoples' pets, didn't go unnoticed on the internet.

Podcaster and "Jeopardy!" champion Hemant Mehta shot back on X, "Remember when Vance spread false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets, leading to the harassment of an entire innocent community for months on end? Hahaha hilarious."

Cody Johnston, host of the Some More News podcast, wrote on X, "Hilarious answer. "Contrary to popular belief, my husband is not, in fact, a boring piece of [expletive].'"

Conservative attorney George Conway, who is running for Congress as a Democrat, wrote on X, "It is true that we, the American public, have seen no indication that J.D. Vance is the nicest, funniest guy. On this there can be no disagreement."

Lawyer Adam Cohen wrote on X, "Oh, yeah. That bit about Haitians eating people’s pets was friggin hilarious."

The progressive commentator account evan loves worf wrote on X, "She knows everyone hates his guts lmao."

Journalist John Harwood wrote on X, "actually he's a bad person."

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