Donald Trump Allegedly Hired Barack Obama Impersonator to ‘Fire’ During 2016 Presidential Run

President Donald Trump hired a Barack Obama impersonator just to act out “firing” him during his 2016 campaign, according to a new book. The story comes from the tell-all account of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney. The book even includes a photo of Trump and this “Faux-Bama” sitting across from each other in the alleged fantasy encounter.

Cohen’s new book is called Disloyal: A Memoir, and it includes tales spanning Cohen’s 12 years working with Trump. The “Faux-Bama” episode — reported by CNN — is one of the most eyebrow-raising stories to come out so far, describing how Trump “ritualistically belittled the first Black president, and then fired him.” Cohen claims the whole scene was related to Trump’s “birtherism” conspiracy theory, which he has still not let go of despite overwhelming evidence that it was incorrect and racist. A photo published by CNN shows Trump sitting at a desk with a boom microphone over his head, across from a Black man with short, graying hair in a suit with an American flag pin on his lapel.

Cohen’s book contains plenty of other tales of overt racism behind closed doors in Trump’s organization. He reportedly recalls Trump fuming about Obama’s election in 2008 by saying: “Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a s—hole…They are all complete f—ing toilets.” Later, during the 2016 presidential election, Cohen remembers hearing someone warn Trump that he may have alienated Latino voters with his harsh immigration rhetoric.

“Plus, I will never get the Hispanic vote,” Trump reportedly said. “Like the blacks, they’re too stupid to vote for Trump. They’re not my people.” As CNN notes, Trump did win 28 percent of the Latino vote in 2016.

Cohen’s book also distinguishes itself from other Trump administration tell-alls by suggesting that Trump has long held authoritarian ambitions. The former attorney wrote that Russian leader Vladimir Putin matches Trump’s ideal of a man in power. However, when it comes to tampering in the 2016 election, he wrote: “What appeared to be collusion was really a confluence of shared interests in harming Hillary Clinton in any way possible, up to and including interfering in the American election — a subject that caused Trump precisely zero unease.”

Cohen addresses just about every major scandal or rumor that has rocked the Trump White House since he took office, all through the self-deprecating lens of his own participation. While he acknowledges his complicity in the allegations he makes, he also condemns both Trump and the FBI for intimidating him with “gangster tactics.” He also claims that he only defected because he “became even more convinced that Trump will never leave office peacefully.”

Trump has distanced himself from Cohen, using Cohen’s testimony about him to Congress as evidence that he is untrustworthy. The White House continued this line of reasoning in response to Cohen’s new book. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said: “Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress. He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies.”

Cohen’s book is called Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. It will be available in print and eBook formats on Tuesday, Sept. 8 wherever books are sold.