Damning

Part of Donald Trump's appeal to the Trumpenproletariat was the idea that he was SO RICH that he wouldn't be tempted by proximity to power and only HE, Donald Trump, could "drain the swamp."  His wealth attached to him skills and attributes that a certain class of people always felt should be in the presidency.

This report in the WaPo should surprise no one at this point.  It won't surprise people in the reality based community who have observed this fraud, nor will it surprise the MAGAts, because they won't believe it.

Basically, it's about how Trump lied to get on the Forbes 400.  He created alter egos who called as "John Barron" to inflate Trump's wealth.  Roy Cohn would threaten as well.  Greenberg does a convinving case of laying out Trump's mendacity.

He only alludes, however, to the implications of Trump's disinformation campaign against Forbes.

First, and most obviously: Trump is an inveterate liar.  He lies the way other people breathe.  Of course, we know that if we are paying attention and not a compromised fool. 

Secondly, we get a sense of Trump's shrewdness.  As Greenberg notes, Trump used his status on the Forbes list as a form of collateral for loans he couldn't otherwise qualify for.  Trump was leveraged as hell for most of the '80s and '90s (and presumably this century).  His actual net worth was much lower than people believed, but because they believed it, they loaned him money.  Trump's great insight has always been to leverage America's veneration of wealth and celebrity into more wealth and celebrity.  Substance has never been "on brand" for Trump.  It has always been about appearance.

Finally, and today maybe most importantly, it goes to show why Trump would have gotten into bed with Russian oligarchs and siloviki.  He never had the cash he said he had.  He never had the properties he said he had.  Fred Trump was the builder; Fred Trump created actual, tangible value.  Donald Trump became a brand that you could license (often for pennies on the dollar).  We got Trump Steaks and Trump Wine for this reason.  He would license his name just to keep the spending money rolling in.  And when Russians with money that needed laundering came calling, Donald Trump was open for business.

Trump's disdain for the common practices that presidents assume - blind trusts, divesting from conflicts of interest - is because his "empire" is much closer to the emperor's new clothes.  It's a fiction he's foisted on the world and more than anything, he can't allow that fiction to be pierced.

Trump is almost certainly guilty of a ton of stuff.  But he's most worried about being proven less than super rich.