Biographer puts Trump's staggering losses in context: He lost $3 every time he took a breath

Trump biographer David Cay Johnston on Wednesday said that President Donald Trump's staggering $1 billion in losses over the span of a decade showed that he is "the greatest con artist in the history of the world."

While appearing on CNN, Johnston took stock of the bombshell New York Times report showing Trump in the late 1980s and early 1990s lost more money than nearly any other American taxpayer.

To give viewers an idea of just how astonishing Trump's losses were, he calculated how much money the president lost every time he breathed.

"I calculated this morning," he said. "Every time Donald Trump took a breath for 11 years, he lost more than $3."

Johnston then argued that the fact that Trump could seemingly talk his way out of this massive financial hole and promote himself to the point where he could make a successful run at the White House showed his exceptional talent for conning people.

CNN's Alisyn Camerota then suggested that Trump supporters might find this kind of resilience admirable -- but Johnston cautioned that Trump's success didn't come without countless other people getting hurt along the way.

"All the small businesses Donald Trump destroyed, all the people he cheated out of their money, all the bank losses that occurred," he said. "This didn't take place without a lot of damage to other people."

Watch the video below.