'Trump is a lie': Analyst sees ex-president sweating that 'fictional achievements' exposed

Donald Trump's campaign has been trying to spin the allegations in his first criminal trial as simply a bookkeeping issue, and even his critics describe the charges as a hush money case, but this trial — like the others before it — expose his entire life as a lie, a columnist wrote Thursday.

The former president faces charges of falsifying financial records to cover up hush money payments to a adult movie actress with whom he allegedly cheated on his third wife. Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf said the first witness in the case, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, has already presented damning evidence of criminal liability and systemic fraud.

"It is not a case about 'paperwork' or 'bookkeeping,'" Rothkopf wrote. "It is not a bland little nothingburger of arcane, hard-to-prove white-collar crime. It is not just the 'hush money' or the 'porn star' sideshow.

"It is a case about an alleged attempt by a man running for this country’s highest office to systematically defraud voters and use illegal means to gain an advantage in an election."

Trump, of course, owes more than $450 million in fraud penalties to go along with four indictments on 91 felony charges, and his Trump Foundation was dissolved for misusing charitable donations and settled a $25 million fraud claim against his Trump University.

But Rothkopf said this case made plain that all of his success was built on lies.

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"One of the most damaging aspects of the current case is that day in and day out for the next six to eight weeks the public will be given examples of how Trump lies, surrounds himself with liars, and has in fact made a profession of lying," Rothkopf wrote.

"That almost does not do his business association with lying justice. He is alongside friends and associates like Rupert Murdoch, the late Roger Ailes, Vladimir Putin, the FSB, the Internet Research Agency, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, and Christopher Ruddy, one of the pioneers of the Misinformation Industrial Complex."

There's no aspect of Trump's life that's not built on lies — his political and business careers, his marriages, his height and his weight, even his golf abilities — and Rothkopf said this trial shows why he has fought so hard to avoid appearing in court where the truth might finally be exposed and he could be held to account for his inherent fraudulence.

"Trump is not a man who lies. Trump is a lie," Rothkopf wrote. "Trump is a fabrication of the mind of Trump. Trump is a fictional character who has fictional achievements and fictional wealth. He is no more real than the tales of visitors from outer space that are so popular with his partners in prevarication at the National Enquirer.

"In some respects, it is no surprise he has become the world’s most notorious liar. He has had quite a lot of success lying and then lying about his lies."