To understand how President Donald Trump promotes his presidency and policies, especially when challenged, one must understand the impact of Roy Cohn, the late New York attorney, on his approach to politics and power.

Cohn was a behind-the-scenes player, a ruthless practitioner of “dirty tricks” and power politics who attached himself to powerful men, assisting their careers while advancing his own. He rose to prominence as the prosecutor of the Rosenbergs (a couple charged, convicted and executed as Soviet spies) and became a key strategist working with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s congressional hearings to expose supposed Communist infiltration in the United States.

1) Attack, attack, attack 2) Admit nothing; deny everything 3) Always claim victory; never admit defeat.

Cohn then advised Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, before hitching his star to Donald Trump as he began his career in New York City real estate and politics.

Cohn’s advice to his clients has been distilled into three rules:

1. Attack, attack, attack

2. Admit nothing; deny everything

3. Always claim victory; never admit defeat.

Cohn always wanted his clients or mentees on the offensive, projecting an image of power, showing no weakness and appearing in control. These traits are daily on display in the Trump White House as he relentlessly attacks President Biden, Democrats, the courts, mainstream media and anyone who dares challenge him, and boastfully claims success, even when reality says otherwise (e.g. his crowds were larger than President Obama’s, consumer prices are declining or he’s brought peace to eight world conflicts).

The past week provided two clear examples of Cohn’s lessons at work. In President Trump’s speech at Davos to world leaders, while making the case for America’s right to control Greenland, he insulted Europeans as weak and threatened punitive sanctions if he didn’t get his way.

Following the speech, during negotiations with the same European leaders, Trump folded, emerging with a deal that maintains the current situation. Still, Mr. Trump declared victory.

Similarly, the White House is experiencing very real problems in its campaign to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. During his presidential campaign, Trump was on the offensive, attacking Democrats as weak, accusing Latin American countries of opening prisons and mental hospitals to flood the U.S. with dangerous people and ceaselessly attacking immigrants themselves, resulting in fear and panic. After congressional Republicans appropriated tens of millions of dollars to expand the immigration enforcement agency, the president was riding high.

Mr. Trump clearly had a broader agenda than the removal of dangerous “illegals.” The states he has flooded with armed enforcement agents are led by Democrats as an exercise in intimidation and humiliation. And despite the fact that these immigration enforcement exercises in Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oregon and Minneapolis have been more problematic than successful, President Trump always declares victory and never admits defeat.

And despite the fact that these immigration enforcement exercises in Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oregon and Minneapolis have been more problematic than successful, President Trump always declares victory and never admits defeat.

The most difficult foray for the president thus far has been into Minneapolis. After attacking and insulting the governor, a Somali American congresswoman and the entire Somali community, he sent agents in a huge display of force (3,000 armed federal agents, compared with 600 Minneapolis police officers). What the White House didn’t expect was massive resistance from the city’s largely White population. Tens of thousands have held vigils and provided protective presence for the city’s immigrants.

Flustered federal agents responded with brute force. In January, two volunteer non-violent observers monitoring the arrests were shot and killed. Following Cohn’s playbook, administration officials responded by attacking the victims, calling them “domestic terrorists”, while admitting no mistakes.

In the past, this approach has satisfied the president’s supporters and deepened the partisan divide. But this time some Republican senators and governors have criticized the murders, the excessive tactics used and the lies of many White House officials.

Here’s where it gets interesting and may have Roy Cohn rolling over in his grave. Instead of defiance, President Trump appeared to flinch. He called Minnesota’s governor, removed the brutish “commander” he’d sent to oversee the operations and suggested a reduced presence of enforcement officers in coming weeks.

These moves may be a change in optics and not a change in tactics, an attempt to calm troubled waters — especially with members of his party worried about November’s elections. But this and the Greenland step-down are early indications that Roy Cohn’s advice has limits when it runs smack into persistent realities that won’t give way.

– Dr. James Zogby is the founder and president of the Washington based Arab American Institute (AAI)