The Real Trump Story is the Crime, Not the Fine

So much grifting we're tired of all the grifting.

For all the attention given to the extraordinary $355 million penalty (not including interest) Donald Trump received in a business fraud trial in New York, if anything this case didn’t receive enough media coverage, or at least not the kind it should have. There was plenty of discussion of the circus-like atmosphere Trump succeeded in creating at the trial, and since the judgment the news media have focused on the fine itself — how big it is, how Trump will come up with the money, etc. But let’s just pause for a moment and say this slowly:

The former and possibly future president of the United States was found liable and ordered to pay damages as a result of his extensive business fraud. That’s the real story here. It’s the crime, not the fine.

And that’s not even mentioning the enormous judgment against him for defaming his rape victim.

That any other news stories are managing to get more than minimal airing at all at this moment is mind-boggling. Yes, I know — everything he does is so unusual and appalling that any one controversy winds up being treated as just another day in the Trumpocene, something we pay attention to briefly before moving on to the next atrocity. But it would be a mistake if we allowed this case to be simply tossed on the enormous pile of Trump scandals, to be ignored or forgotten as we move forward to our appointment with destiny in November.

Trump was not only the most corrupt president in any of our lifetimes (and possibly ever), he is also likely the most corrupt prominent businessperson in America today. The reason his criminal conduct is so urgent is that if he wins another term in the White House, his corruption is only going to get worse. Try to imagine how emboldened he’ll be if after all this he still manages to win the presidency. What won’t he do?

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling carefully documented the varieties of fraud Trump engaged in as he sought to obtain favorable rates on loans; lying about his assets and creating false records seems to have been his modus operandi. And not a time or two, but over and over, with clear fraudulent intent. While this is hardly the first time we learned about this practice — former Trump consigliere Michael Cohen testified to Congress in 2019 that Trump would overvalue his properties when seeking loans, then undervalue them when reporting his taxes — the case produced copious documentary evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing.

The ruling notes that Trump, his sons, and his associates were guilty of “repeatedly and persistently falsifying business records…with the intent to defraud.” The judge wrote that “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.” Then he said this, which may be the most important part of the ruling for the electorate to understand:

Defendants’ refusal to admit error — indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor — constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained. Indeed, Donald Trump testified that, even today, he does not believe the Trump Organization needed to make any changes based on the facts that came out during this trial.

When a defendant essentially says “Yeah I did it, and I’m gonna do it again!”, if the court doesn’t punish him, future crimes are all but guaranteed. And that is what Trump says about all his misdeeds. He has every intention of repeating them, whether it’s using every means up to and including violence to overturn elections he loses; to using the White House as a tool to enhance his wealth; to deploying the Justice Department as an instrument of revenge against his opponents. 

A lifetime of scams

Trump’s shameless grasping for every piece of silver he can get his hands on can distract from the reality of just what an extraordinary swindler he has been for his entire career. When he starts hawking gold-colored clown shoes for $399 (“The Never Surrender sneakers are your rally cry in shoe form,” the promo copy states), the immediate reaction is that this is just one more pathetic attempt to squeeze a few dollars from gullible fans whose willingness to pay for any piece of junk with “Trump” written on it seems almost limitless. Which is true. But his QVC-worthy licensing deals, comical though they may be, are less important than his long history of outright scams and cons. 

It still amazes me that almost no one ever brings up the fact that when his father Fred was nearing the end of his life, he and Donald designed and executed what must surely stand as one of the largest tax fraud schemes in history; as the New York Times revealed with carefully documented evidence, they created a complex system of shell companies and phony transactions that enabled them to evade over half a billion dollars in taxes. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had run out by the time the fraud was revealed. 

Then there’s the way he refused to pay hundreds of small businesses for goods and services they provided him, effectively stealing from people who didn’t have the resources to fight back. Or Trump University (for which he had to pay $25 million to  his victims). Or the bogus “foundation” that was forced to shut down after what the state attorney general called “a shocking pattern of illegality.” Or the vitamin pyramid scheme, the telecom pyramid scheme, the exploitation of foreign models as illegal immigrant labor, the other undocumented labor he has used, the violations of securities law, or the way he did business with the mob and eastern European kleptocrats.

In short, Trump’s long record of sleaze placed him in a class all his own even before he set out to subvert our national institutions. The most famous con artists, like Charles Ponzi and his descendant Bernie Madoff, often had one big scam that defined their careers and legacy. Trump, in contrast, is distinguished by the variety and sheer volume of his scams. 

In an effort to make himself seem like a victim and bind his cultists to his fate, Trump always claims that “they” are coming for “you” once they’re done with him, and his multiple criminal and civil trials are the proof. To which we should respond: You’re damn right. If you commit fraud, if you abscond with classified documents and refuse to return them, if you try to overthrow our democracy, then yes, we will come after you, using any appropriate and legal means we can. Because that’s what a properly functioning society does with the criminals and con artists in its midst. That, and not what effect Trump’s fine will have on his business or his campaign, is what is at stake here. And we can’t forget it.