I anticipated your dismissal of what they had to say based on their betraying loyalty to The Almighty.
I happen to have more respect for the opinion of Cohen than I do for those with blind loyalty.
With the exception of
born-again Christians, I tend to respect those who renounce their previous bad decisions, associations and try to make amends for their previous actions etc. And I tend to give some weight to what they say. Especially, when the objective facts and evidence align with what they are saying.
Trumptards who are also anti-vaxxers just love to point to ex-Big Pharma whistleblowers who also lived high on the hog and made lots of money.
And you are likely downplaying the opinions of your friends who have dealt with Trump. You probably want to believe they said he is "cheap" when in fact he simply does not pay his bills. Thousands of lawsuits prove this. And I don't think any one of them has the word "cheap" in the statement of claim. More like "refused to pay for what he agreed to". There is a difference.
Those people I know who have had direct or indirect dealings with him say he is a sneaky, snaky con man who has zero ethics nor sense of honour. It's all a charade in his big con.