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Donald Trump certainly didn’t get rich through hard work and there aren’t very many who would argue that point. There is just too much historical evidence that his father funded his folly and bailed him out of financial messes as banks, contractors and suppliers suffered his several bankruptcies. What Trump has worked hard to perfect is the art of the con and it is how he fooled, and is still fooling, a fair number of American ignoramuses.

During the campaign, Trump promised a brilliant infrastructure plan that sane human beings knew was too good to be true because Trump is a scam artist and he lies at the same rate most humans draw breath. It turns out that the plan is a monumental scam and as many smart people, including savvy economists, warned was a giveaway to the rich and corporations and a massive drain on taxpayer dollars. Oh, and there is the recent admission by Trump’s transportation secretary that besides taxpayers shelling out $1 trillion for corporate profits, they will have to shell out more every time they use that “privately owned” section of infrastructure.

The idea of paying a toll to drive on American roads is not something the people are used to, or will accept without a robust fight. Throughout the campaign Trump never said his plan privatized America’s roads and bridges, or that taxpayers would have to pay a toll to drive over them. Trump’s Transportation Secretary, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao accidentally revealed that tolls are part of the Trump infrastructure scam, and here is the sick part; that foreigners will be an important part of the “public-private” partnership that gives “private” ownership to foreign nationals and domestic corporations alike.

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Chao nearly tripped over her own misspeak while trying to describe how wonderful Trump’s infrastructure plan is. McConnell’s wife explained to Fox’s Sean Hannity how Trump’s infrastructure scam will be funded using “exciting and novel ideas;” ideas that are only “exciting” to corporations and foreign investors and “novel” in handing over infrastructure ownership to foreigners. It is noteworthy that Ms. Chao had to stop her explanation, mid-word no less, to cover over the truth that Trump intends to sell off ownership in America’s infrastructure to foreign nationals. After Hannity prodded Ms. Chao to explain how Trump’s $1 trillion would be funded, she said:

“So, basically, we allow foreign inv—uh, we allow different kinds of money, private sector money to come into the United States—I’m not saying foreign—to come and fund, let’s say a bridge or a road or it can be any kind of infrastructure.” (author bold)

Watch Secretary Chao choke mid-word.

Okay look; if private sector money is “to come into the United States,” that means it came from “outside the United States;” what even an imbecile would call foreign money. Ms. Chao cannot possibly be that naïve to think all Americans missed her admission that foreigners will own interest in America’s infrastructure. That is actually the crux of any privatization plan after all, but even Republicans have openly stopped short of selling foreign privatization of America’s infrastructure.

Hannity had to put his two penny’s worth of insightfulness into Chao’s explanation giving her the opportunity to verify that Americans will have to pay to use their own roads in addition to spending their $1 trillion to subsidize foreign and domestic “partners.” Hannity said:

“If I’m hearing it properly, what you’re saying is, for example, if a company were to rebuild a road, they might get their investment back by having a toll on that road and that’s where the taxpayers don’t pay a penny, they make a profit, it’s a win-win? Something like that?”

Hannity is a buffoon to say taxpayers don’t “pay a penny” after saying they have to pay a toll, and failed to acknowledge that the $1 trillion in tax breaks and incentives to domestic and “foreign inv-uh” investors will come directly from the taxpayers. It is a win-win-win, but only for the foreign and domestic investors who get gigantic tax incentives, own America’s infrastructure in a privatization scam Chao labeled as “novel and exciting,” and then collect tolls from those same Americans.

Ms. Chao also said it is a public-private effort, but that is another scam to explain taxpayers enriching corporations. The only part the public has in the scam is taxpayers subsidizing the $1 trillion tax giveaway to the rich, foreign and domestic. The public will also be a partner only in having to pay tolls to drive across privately-owned roads, bridges, and highways they just let Trump give away to “foreign inv-uh” corporations; an admission Chao made on several occasions.

Trump’s “scam” is exactly that; a scam and a trap to enrich corporations, including foreign corporations, and the extremely wealthy; likely including the Russian oligarchs and mafia extremely wealthy. This is a Trump scam after all and privatization-addled Republicans will jump at the opportunity to force taxpayers to subsidize $1 trillion for foreign and domestic investors; they have always longed to privatize America’s infrastructure to enrich the wealthy. It is a scam of epic proportions and a trap for the gullible to fall into and then bitch later that they didn’t know they would be paying some foreign inv-uh to drive over the roads they just spent $1 trillion to rebuild. It is a monumental trap, to say the least.

According to the Obama Administration man in charge of implementing infrastructure improvements under the 2009 stimulus program, Ronald A. Klein said Trump’s infrastructure plan is a trap and massive giveaway to the rich; including the “foreign inv-uh” rich and their corporations. Mr. Klein said:

“The Trump plan doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports. Instead, Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors who back profitable construction projects. These projects (such as electrical grid modernization or energy pipeline expansion) might already be planned or even underway. There’s no requirement that the tax breaks be used for incremental or otherwise expanded construction efforts; they could all go just to fatten the pockets of investors in previously planned projects.”

Nobel Laureate in economics Paul Krugman completely concurs with Mr. Klein that the only winners are those who always win with any Republican proposal; the rich and their corporations who will be subsidized by the taxpayers to the tune of $1 trillion. Like Klein, Mr. Krugman explained that Trump’s infrastructure scam is a monumental privatization scam and that it is a trap that too many Democrats may fall into simply because they do not, or will not, see the real outrages in the plan; and there are definitely plenty of outrages the population is not learning about; but that is always part of any Republican scams.

H/t KevinWallace