Time was, Rudy Giuliani merely played a guest role in Donald Trump’s dramas, serving as the president’s deeply unhelpful personal lawyer during the special counsel’s Russia probe. Last month, though, we learned that the two New Yorkers had been collaborating on a campaign to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, an effort in which Giuliani played a major part. A former federal prosecutor says Giuliani could be charged with a crime “if he has conspired with the president to extort the Ukrainians,” and, on top of that, he’s not even being paid for his freelance work. So what keeps the former mayor coming back for more? According to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Giuliani, like so many in Trump’s orbit, appears to have a thing for presidential abuse, of both the public and private variety.

The most humiliating example is undoubtedly the time Trump reportedly “berated” Giuliani in front of other people at Steven Mnuchin’s 2017 wedding, complained that Giuliani “was spitting while he was talking,” and forced him to stand elsewhere to avoid being hit, according to a former aide. (To be fair, Giuliani does appear to have some kind of salivary problem.)

Then there was the time Trump apparently tore Giuliani a new one for...not doing a better job defending him, after a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women emerged:

After the release of the Access Hollywood tape weeks before the election in which Mr. Trump was captured making lewd comments about women, few advisers were willing to go on the Sunday talk shows to defend the candidate. Mr. Giuliani taped all five shows—after which Mr. Trump attacked him for his performance. “Man, Rudy, you sucked. You were weak. Low energy,” the candidate told him, according to a book by two former campaign aides, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.

Probably least offensive—though uniquely Trumpian—is the president’s reported habit of “needl[ing]” Giuliani for the crime of...“falling asleep on long flights.” (That’s something normal humans are known to do, but which the president apparently sees as a sign of weakness.) After enough abuse, a lot of people would probably decide enough is enough, and ditch their tormentor. But according to the Journal, Giuliani keeps coming back for more:

Mr. Giuliani rarely complained about such treatment, jockeying with other aides and advisers to sit next to Mr. Trump at dinner or on the plane. “Rudy never wanted to be left out,” one former aide said. “If you were ever between Rudy and the president, look out. You were going to get trampled.”

Last year, the Journal reported on Trump’s habit of abusing a different personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose son’s bar mitzvah blessings were allegedly delayed because of the real estate developer. When he finally arrived, Trump reportedly proceeded to give a speech in which he told guests “he hadn’t planned to come, but...relented after Mr. Cohen had repeatedly called him, his secretary, and his children begging him to appear.” Will Trump’s relationship with Giuliani go the way of Cohen? Stay tuned!

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