Trump: The Art of the Con and the Grifting of America

Early in the 20^th century, George C. Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge, Grant’s Tomb, the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He did this numerous times using fake documents and a fake office. 

Bernie Madoff bilked investors out of over $65 billion in a decades-long Ponzi scheme through his investment firm.  Bernie hired his brother Peter, his niece Shana, and his sons Mark and Andrew in various positions.  He conned some of the best and brightest in the financial world.  He promised lavish returns but simply deposited investor money in a bank account and provided phony statements while using the bank account to freely support his lavish lifestyle.  Of the $65B lost, only $4B was returned.

In the accompanying graphic, I have also included Charles Manson among these otherwise financially successful con men only because he “conned” cult members into committing murder on his behalf.  He targeted emotionally insecure social outcasts and manipulated them with drugs, sex, and a quasi-religious combination of Scientology and Transcendental Meditation.  Manson personifies the psychopathic individual with his extreme lack of empathy and his ability to be charming, manipulative, and exploitative.  All are requirements for a proper con.

This brings us to the final, perhaps the greatest con man of them all, Donald J. Trump.  "The Donald" would certainly try to convince you that he is the greatest of anything you might mention.  While he might be loathed to tell you, that he is a con man, this would be in keeping with another philosophical observation.  To quote the famous line from The Usual Suspects Verbal Kint, aka Keyser Söze, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Donald John Trump has perfected, with some alacrity, the ability to grab the spotlight and demand attention.  He needs an audience.  He often accomplishes this simply with his outrageousness.  He could fill another book that might be titled Trumpism: The Art of the Buffoon.  Just like many of the other “isms,” Trumpism is not a complex or hard-to-understand construct.  Know the man, understand the philosophy.  At his core, Donald John Trump is the essential con man.  If you can comprehend what motivates a man who exploits others by gaining their confidence, you begin to understand The Donald.

George Parker sold a mile-long bridge and Donald Trump sold a miles-long wall of xenophobic hate.  Bernie Madoff conned financial institutions before being caught and Donald Trump has conned the banking industry and others resulting in over 3,500 legal suits.  When Trump pulled off his most outlandish con, the presidency of the United States, he had taken his bluster and grift to a new audience.

To call confidence schemers con “artists,” asks us to acknowledge that some manner of talent is inherent in the individual.  I would argue that, while this might be a learned behavior or skill, to call it "art" is to degrade all other skills and abilities that seek loftier goals.  Cheating others may be interesting to study or watch as a spectator, perhaps in a movie like The Sting or Catch Me If You Can, but fraud victims most often have a less tolerant viewpoint.

Con "artists" generally have dark psychological defects that few would describe as talents beyond some measure of comparison with others of the same devious mindset.  Among these are psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism where manipulation of others to their detriment brings pleasure to the perpetrator.  The exploitation of the gullible most often involves an attack of the human frailty of the “mark.”  Psychopathy is manifested by illogical emotional responses, a lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls that may predict criminal behavior.  Subtypes of psychopathy may include narcissism, sadism, or simple antisocial behavior.

Since one of the traits peculiar to con artists was named after him, a brief background on Niccolo Machiavelli might be helpful.  He is also called the father of modern political philosophy.  He was a Florentine diplomat who lived during the Italian Renaissance.  His observations of history and personal experiences led him to proclaim that politics has always involved deception, treachery, and crime.  Machiavelli wrote Discourses on Livy which provided a foundation for modern Republicanism. While such political realism may have been as accurate then as now, it is hardly something we should aspire to or tolerate.

While true Republicanism as a political ideology has many valid and worthwhile virtues, putting those ideas into practice is where Machiavelli’s deception, treachery, and crime create our current problems.  Civic virtue, rule of law, and self-governance sound good but implementation can be difficult.

The World According to Trump, aka Trumpism, flourishes under his predisposition to manipulation.  While Trump lacks any historical sense, he is a master manipulator.  In the dark triad of psychological traits, Trump scores the trifecta.  His Machiavellian manipulation coupled with his psychopathy and narcissistic personality disorder make him a most evil politician. 

In psychologist Dale Hartley’s book, Machiavellians: Gulling the Rubes, he describes these master manipulators as hardwired to lie, cheat, scheme, and betray.  Hartley says that these con artists are easy to identify by their persistent behavior where they view all human interaction to be contests between winners and losers.  If this winners and losers theme sounds familiar you have obviously listened to at least one of Trump’s diatribes.

In the toolbox of the proficient con artist, you will find another trait, charm.  They can turn it on by pushing your buttons to make you feel special.  They also know those buttons to push that get you angry and motivated to take action.  All they need to do is stir the anger and point you in a certain direction to vent that anger.  Create the problem then identify a “solution” even if closer scrutiny would reveal better options.

Donald Trump has been working the long con for years.  His is not some carefully planned complex scheme but an adaptation of a lifestyle that fulfills his narcissistic craving for adulation and praise.  He keeps score on several fronts.  The long con is all about leverage.  Profits decide winners and losers in financial transactions.  There are also things like crowd sizes and items that can be measured to tally the score.  Even if you don’t have the biggest or best of something, you can certainly tell people yours is the best, then repeat the Big Lie with conviction enough times so they become believers.

Con artists are very confident and cocky with an overvaluation of self-worth.  They are arrogant and abusive when challenged.  In Trump’s case, he can also use his perceived wealth to garner trust.  Many people will tell themselves that: he has all that money so he must be good at what he does.  Trump’s displays of wealth and prosperity and his violent outrage at any information that would degrade that perception, tell you just how much it means to him.  It was no accident that he began his successful presidential bid by descending a golden escalator with trophy wife number three.  Create the illusion and the rest is simple.

Trump grasping the brass ring

Trump is not some Bernie Madoff running a decades-long Ponzi scheme.  He isn’t that clever.  He is just a Machiavellian personality who has worked his narcissism from a stint as a game show host to grab the Commander in Chief’s ring from his perch atop his plastic horse on the US political carousel.  The best cons leave the subjects still loving the perpetrator.  To the con artist, the marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from the word gullible), deserved to be fleeced for their foolishness and greed.

Footnote:  While this topic of con MEN seems a bit sexist, a number of women have been adept at this "trade," and perhaps we don't know their numbers because they are better at it than men.  Big Bertha Heyman (5’ 4” and 245 lbs) conned men pretending to be a wealthy woman unable to access her fortune.  Barbara Erni traveled Liechtenstein dressed lavishly with a large ornate trunk that she insisted be stored in the most secure room in the building.  Her accomplice would climb out of the trunk, steal everything of value, and climb back into the trunk.  Elizabeth Bigley, aka Cassie Chadwick, claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie.  She let it be known that he provided her with riches to keep quiet which tempted banks to offer her loans.  The banks were duped out of an estimated $20M for their greed.  In a variation of the Bigley scam, Therese Humbert claimed to be heir to the fortune of an imaginary millionaire who had but one condition, the money would be locked in a large safe until her younger sister could marry.  A huge loan against the safe’s contents financed her lavish lifestyle until creditors demanded it be opened to find a brick and an English half-penny.