Before he became president, Donald Trump’s strong dislike of Barack Obama saw him hire a “Faux-Bama” to take part in a video in which he mocked and “fired” him, it has been claimed.
According to a new book by his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, as reported by CNN, Mr Trump employed a lookalike for a skit in which he “ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him”.
The claim comes from Mr Cohen’s upcoming memoir Disloyal: The True Story Of The Former Personal Attorney To President Donald J Trump, which CNN has obtained an early copy of.
While CNN reports that the book does not name the man who allegedly played Mr Obama, or give a date for when the incident happened, it does include a photograph.
It shows Mr Trump sitting behind a desk, facing a black man in a suit, who has a US flag pin on his lapel – and on the desk are two books, one displaying his White House predecessor’s name in large letters.
Michael Cohen worked for Mr Trump between 2006 and 2018
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Also in the memoir, Cohen – who worked as Mr Trump’s attorney between 2006 and 2018 – alleges that his former boss was “guilty of the same crimes” that landed him in a federal prison.
Cohen was jailed for three years in May last year after pleading guilty to various crimes – including making illegal hush money payments to silence two women alleged to have had an affair with Mr Trump, and lying to Congress.
Still under house arrest, Cohen reiterates his long-standing claim that Mr Trump approved a $130,000 (£98,000) payment to silence one of those women – porn actress Stormy Daniels – ahead of the 2016 election.
Mr Trump has previously denied knowledge of the payment and having an affair with Ms Daniels.
Cohen’s memoir also claims that Mr Trump admires Vladimir Putin, but says the Trump campaign was “far too chaotic and incompetent to actually conspire with the Russian government”.
The book – released on Tuesday – has been dismissed by the White House as “fan fiction”.
