1) The second installment of the NYT investigation into Trump's taxes is a tour de force, a narrative masterpiece.

It shows how Trump created a "fictional alter ego" as a business success, and milked it for years.

That's exactly what he did in 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/29/when-trump-attacks-biden-debate-his-scam-will-hit-rock-bottom/

2) Trump's creation of a fictional self on "the Apprentice," followed by years of squandering his gains through incompetence and narcissism, parallel his election in 2016 on a fraudulent platform and his disastrous first term with eerie precision:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/29/when-trump-attacks-biden-debate-his-scam-will-hit-rock-bottom/

3) The NYT offers this killer summary:

"Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame."

But then he used this image to fleece desperate people w/scams like Trump U.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/29/when-trump-attacks-biden-debate-his-scam-will-hit-rock-bottom/

4) In 2016 Steve Bannon performed the same role that Mark Burnett did in producing "The Apprentice." Both created a fictional Trump that he milked for years while the managerial disasters piled up.

This time we are the losers. But his bill is coming due:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/29/when-trump-attacks-biden-debate-his-scam-will-hit-rock-bottom/

5) Bringing the scam full circle, two producers of "The Apprentice" helped stage Trump's convention, which also peddled massive illusions -- that Trump crushed coronavirus and that the real threat to the rule of law is leftist terrorism.

Full case here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/29/when-trump-attacks-biden-debate-his-scam-will-hit-rock-bottom/