Michael Cohen really, really wants everyone to know he’s friends with President Donald Trump again.

Trump seems a little less eager to talk about it.

The president appeared Thursday evening on Cohen’s new WABC radio show, an extraordinary reunion between Trump and the former lawyer and fixer who became one of his most famous enemies.

Trump was willing to share the airwaves with a man he once called a “liar” and a “rat.” What he wasn’t particularly interested in doing was reminiscing about their decades-long friendship, their spectacular falling-out or whatever their relationship is supposed to be now.

Instead, Trump offered Cohen something resembling absolution.

“They weaponized a lot of people, and I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump told him. “That’s a big thing you did. That’s a very big thing.”

And that was about as personal as it got.

The much-hyped reunion quickly settled into more familiar territory, with Trump taking shots at Democrats and talking about his political appeal with voters.

Part of the telephone interview aired Thursday, with another segment scheduled for Sunday evening.

‘The next Rush Limbaugh’

Whatever Trump thinks of the friendship, his appearance was a major get for a radio show that’s only about a month old.

It also marked another remarkable turn in Cohen’s long and messy relationship with his former boss.

WABC billionaire owner and Trump ally John Catsimatidis said last month that Trump personally approved Cohen’s hiring.

“The president was in favor of the hiring,” Catsimatidis, who also owns New York grocery chain Gristedes, said. “He believes Michael could be the next Rush Limbaugh.”

Catsimatidis said Cohen brings “clarity and perspective to the conversation” in a country “that is so bombarded by fake news.”

That assessment is a long way from where Cohen and Trump stood just a few years ago.

Cohen became an ardent Trump critic after their relationship imploded, publicly calling his former boss “a conman” and “a cheat.”

He went to prison after admitting his role in arranging pre-election hush-money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal on Trump’s behalf. Cohen later became a key prosecution witness in the case that resulted in Trump’s 2024 conviction for falsifying business records related to the Daniels payments. Daniels’ legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

Ahead of Thursday’s interview, Politico raised the obvious question of whether Cohen might use his renewed access to ask Trump for a pardon.

At least during the portion broadcast Thursday, there was no dramatic confrontation — or emotional reconciliation.

WABC comes back around

Cohen’s Trump reunion is also part of a broader transformation at WABC.

Catsimatidis has long been friendly with Trump, but the station took a harder line on election denialism following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was eventually pulled off the air after continuing to use WABC to push false election-fraud claims.

That line has since blurred.

As another election cycle heats up, the station has returned to platforming some of the same election conspiracy theories it once prohibited.

And now it has Cohen.

His show, “When You Know, You Know,” has at times sounded like a Trump reunion tour. But Cohen hasn’t entirely reverted to the loyal fixer who once said he would “take a bullet for the president.”

He has also been picking fights with some of Trump’s most devoted supporters.

Cohen takes on ‘Camp Trump’

Cohen said last month that he hopes to challenge “a mistaken belief that the loudest voice in the room is one that is heard.”

Lately, some of those loud voices have been coming from what Cohen calls “Camp Trump.”

Before his interview with the president, Cohen wrote on Substack that his inbox had “once again become a digital battlefield,” filled with messages from people “ready to personally escort me to the gates of hell for daring to share a microphone with Donald Trump again.”

That’s quite a reversal for someone who once described Trump as a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain.”

Cohen was particularly amused by critics whose social media profiles feature “sparkling cross” emojis, Bible verses and declarations of Christian faith alongside furious attacks on him.

“One minute, they’re posting inspirational memes about divine love and turning the other cheek,” Cohen wrote. “The next, they’re screaming into my digital throat with enough fury to melt the screen.”

It leaves Cohen in a peculiar position: rebuilding his relationship with Trump while antagonizing some of the people who never abandoned Trump in the first place.

And that may be the most revealing thing about Thursday’s interview.

Cohen has been eager to advertise his return to Trump’s good graces. Trump, at least so far, appears less interested in defining exactly what Cohen is to him these days.

He praised Cohen for recanting his previous claims. He agreed that Cohen had been “weaponized.” Then he moved on.

Maybe Sunday’s second installment will settle the question.

For now, one side of this reunion is unmistakable: Michael Cohen wants everyone to know he and Donald Trump are friends again.

Donald Trump hasn’t quite said the same.