(CNN) Lost in all of the chaos and drama surrounding the release of the top-secret memo is a much simpler story: Donald Trump, a member of the take-no-prisoners school of life and business, is willing to take any fight to any level. Blunt force is his friend, especially if it's used to gain leverage. And leverage -- and winning -- is of course the ultimate goal.

No matter what American carnage, to borrow a Trump inaugural phrase.

So as we see Trump take on the FBI and the intelligence community (despite telling Republicans Thursday "we support the men and women of law enforcement"), remember this: Roy Cohn , one of the original masters of disaster who helped enable Sen. Joe McCarthy's red-baiting, is one of Trump's heroes, once his mentor. He has been known to pine for the modern-day equivalent of Cohn, which he hasn't found.

So he has to be his own Cohn.

Bob Mueller, the buttoned-down Brahmin, is facing a street fighter for whom being under siege is a way of life. Gloria Borger

He is, as one source who knows him well says, "a New Yorker who escalates much further than you -- or anyone you know -- is probably willing to escalate." Bob Mueller, the buttoned-down Brahmin, is facing a street fighter for whom being under siege is a way of life.

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