Is the Don's Con Gone? by David Corn

[justaprogressive]

Donald Trump standing next to a podium, pointing into a crowd
Donald Trump after speaking about the Iran war at the White House on Wednesday.Alex Brandon/AP

A con man’s challenge is to stay ahead of his con. If his marks begin to see too many signs that they are being played—and the swindler can’t craft a cover story to account for these contrary facts—the artifice can start to crumble.

Donald Trump may be at this point.

Of course, millions of Americans have known from the start that Trump has long been a deceitful scammer. But millions of others have fallen for his hustle—and they stuck with his flimflam after his first stint as president demonstrated he lied when he promised cheaper and better health care, a revival of American infrastructure, and an end to budget deficits. Despite his failure to make good on these pie-in-the-sky promises, he managed to keep the con going—even after miserably mismanaging the Covid pandemic and then scheming to overturn a national election.

Facts can emerge and threaten a hustle. That might be happening now.

As we know—and he certainly does—many scams depend on people wanting to believe the scammer. That was evident in 2024, when Trump’s vow to lower grocery prices and spur an economic Golden Age appealed to voters slammed by inflation and the high cost of living. He had conned the electorate once before and nearly destroyed American democracy, but these voters were willing to give the bunko artist another shot. This was akin to an abused spouse offering their abusive partner a second chance on the promise that all will be grand this time.

Yet even within false realities, facts can emerge and threaten a hustle. That might be happening now. It has been widely noted that Trump campaigned as an America Firster opposed to so-called “forever wars,” and yet he launched this war of choice against Iran on what appears to have been a whim. (His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called it a “feeling.”) At the time of his impulse, negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still underway and Iran was not two weeks away from producing a nuclear weapon, as Trump has insisted. His trigger-happiness has belied his proclaimed aversion to Mideast wars and overseas interventions. He showed no fealty to what he professed to be a chief principle. This brazen contradiction is tough for everyone but the most committed Trump devotees to ignore.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/donald-trump-con-man-scam-iran-war-pentagon-tariffs-approval-rating/

[malaise]

1. Iran, Epstein and the lies about the economy

have combined giving us the perfect trifecta of a crumbling collapsing con with no more cards left to play. His desperate attempts to steal the mid-terms are going nowhere in a hurry.