A potentially devastating ruling against Donald Trump has pierced the heart of a decades-old narrative he used to boost his national profile and seduce millions of voters to support his campaigns for the presidency.
That persona was built on a “fantasy” made up of cheating, lying and outright fraud, according to a New York judge presiding over a blockbuster lawsuit from the state’s attorney general, whose investigation revealed the former president, his adult sons, businesses and chief executives “grossly and materially inflated” assets over a decade.
