My family tree is peppered with a number of colorful characters, not the least of which was my great-uncle, John. His branch of the tree is strangely twisted and has dotted lines. He and Donald Trump would have gotten along famously as they have several things in common. Both were married to three different women, but my great-uncle was “married” to all three at the same time. The word married is in quotes because two of those marriages were done with sham ceremonies performed by actors who thought they were auditioning for a part in a movie. He had children with each of his wives, just like Trump, hence the dotted lines on the family tree.
Yes, like our president, my great-uncle John was a conman. On the financial side of his ventures there were land deals with hints of gold riches from “found” nuggets at the different sites. I only met my great-uncle on two occasions. The first was on a trip in 1952 and we stayed at his huge ranch in north central California. He had a two-story ranch house on a large man-made lake. On a second visit, when I was in the 6th grade, there was a second lake being dug in the front. I remember on that trip that I was shown some of his gold nuggets from his large safe that had supposedly come from his rock crushing operation on the north end of his property.
It would be many years later that I would learn of my great-uncle John’s conman activities. This explained the many “relatives” with different last names. I bring up this family conman only as a reference to our national family conman, the President of the United States. Most conmen prefer to seem like regular people; it helps with the deception. According to family legend, my great-uncle would introduce himself as “Honest John” who sealed all his deals with a handshake.
The conmen regarded as the best in the business, are able to pull off a long-con and leave the mark unaware that he has been conned. In some cases the mark willingly parts with his money and feels sympathy for the conman. By Trump standards, my great uncle was a piker. In fact, Donald John Trump may go down in history having exceeded the two most famous conmen of all time, Leo Korentz and Charles Ponzi.
You see, unlike Korentz and Ponzi, our president has not only been up front with his intent to defraud us, he has done it all in plain view with an attitude taken from the title of Frank Abagnale’s movie story, Catch Me if You Can. I was reminded of this openness during a recent Chris Hayes broadcast where Chris showed clips from Donald Trump campaigns reading his favorite poem, The Snake by Oscar Brown Jr. He repeated this poem dozens of times throughout his 2016 campaign. While its original intent was veiled with warnings of immigrant “snakes”, it is easy to read into this tale of betrayal a warning of a world leader embarking on one of the greatest long cons in history. To use his favorite phrase, "it will be the greatest con the world has ever seen."
The Snake is both a poem and a song, the latter was sung by Al Wilson in 1968. It plays off a familiar Aesop fable of The Farmer and the Viper, and the gist is also reminiscent of another classic fable, The Scorpion and the Frog. Both share the moral of a naïve individual betrayed by a predator. The MAGA rubes in Trump’s audience delighted in his reading of this poem, perhaps unaware that they were about to be bitten. The Snake ends with…
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in”
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For those who might be interested in the psychology of why conmen are successful, I have included the formal analysis here:
The Psychological Mechanics: Why the Mark Stays Blind
Con artists do not exploit a mark's greed; they exploit human psychology. These four psychological principles explain why a mark will defend the con even after they have been cleaned out.
• The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Once a mark invests time, emotion, or initial money into a venture, they become desperate to prove their initial decision was right. They will throw more money into the con to justify what they already spent, completely ignoring red flags.
• Confirmation Bias: The human brain naturally looks for information that confirms what it already believes. If a mark believes they are dealing with a brilliant business partner or a loving partner, they will rationalize away suspicious behavior as "stress" or a "misunderstanding."
• Status and Ego Preservation: Admitting you have been tricked is psychologically devastating. Many marks who start to suspect the truth will actively choose to believe the lie instead, because the alternative—admitting they were foolish—is too painful for their ego to handle.
• Manufactured Urgency: Scammers use artificial crises (a sudden legal issue, a ticking clock on a business deal) to force the mark into "survival mode." When a person is stressed and rushing, the logical brain shuts down, preventing them from stepping back to see the bigger picture.
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