Donald Trump is a fraud and a con artist. This isn't an opinion, but adjudicated fact, proved by a New York court that found Trump liable for nearly half a billion dollars for his decades of business fraud. Or another court, which accepted Trump's settlement of $25 million for years of defrauding customers of his fake "Trump University." Or the jury in Trump's criminal case, which convicted him on 34 felony charges for defrauding voters by paying hush money to an adult film actress.
What can still be hard to wrap one's mind around, however, is how a man so shamelessly criminal, who openly treats his supporters like wallets to be picked, is the GOP nominee for the third presidential election in a row. But perhaps it's not so surprising, argues Joe Conason. In his new book, "The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism," the journalist and editor-in-chief at The National Memo traces the long marriage between right-wing politics and con artistry. Trump is no anomaly in this history, but the natural result of decades of snake oil salesmen bamboozling the Republican base for political gain and profit.
