Do you think Cohen’s operations are what Trump had in mind when he promised to drain the swamp?

I think that Trump knew full well what Cohen was doing and why. Trump was his client for 10+ years.

In their hubris, neither Trump nor Cohen ever though they would be found out. Like most criminals, they think they are too smart and will never be caught.

You would think that when you are a billionaire you wouldn’t concern yourself with such piddly amounts.

But yeah…

I think what Trump had in mind was “if I say ‘drain the swamp’, then whoever hears it will think I’m talking I mean to remove whoever they think I ought to remove, and I can do whatever I want because I don’t have anything specific in mind and probably am not going to win, anyway”.

“Has there been a President since Grant with so stupendous a sleazy retinue?”
No!

Given Agent Orange’s disastrously deficient impulse control, I don’t think he had that or anything else beyond the immediate political impact in mind, when he belched that “promise”.

I think it’s part of his pathological fetish to replace the swamp with a cesspool.

He had nothing in mind because he has no mind. It was just words.

He is going to “drain the swamp” and put his people in as replacements.

Kickbacks are minimal.

He wants to replace their swamp with a swamp of his own.

Trump’s statement was an insult to swamps.