Politico’s journalistic MO seems to be:
find some dirt on trump
if no dirt on trump found, then find some dirt on someone who knows trump
add water to make mud
throw the mud at trump and see if anything sticks to him
repeat entire process ad nauseum
Of course, you are correct. But none the less the article is extremely illuminating. Roy Cohn is hated by the left precisely because he was so effective at combating communism (and later, his legal opponents). He was also apparently quite a NYC socialite and counted among his close personal friends people of many political stripes (including Barbara Walters).
Whether one sees Trump’s association with him as something negative or positive depends on one’s knowledge of history and one’s political bent. (And history has shown that Sen Joseph McCarthy was correct in his accusations about communist inflitration of the US government in the early 1950s.)
My point is that there is no doubt that Trump understands the nature of the leftist enemy thanks to his association with Cohn in a way that most modern conservatives do not.
The left plays with no rules and no morality and hence can only be combatted by the politicla equivalent of brass knuckles.