As former President Obama donned a fluffy red hat with a pom-pom to deliver gifts at a children’s hospital, current President Trump’s charity was being shut down by authorities, for “a shocking pattern of illegality.”

It was like a scene out of “Bad Santa.” ‘Tis the season for civil penalties – and perhaps, as investigations like this continue into the new year, criminal charges.

Virtually every organization Trump has led is now under investigation. Trump University and the Trump Foundation have both been shuttered for illegal activity.

His campaign, his business, his inaugural committee, his charity and his administration all face serious allegations, from illegal foreign donations to tax evasion.

The president is a subject of at least 17 ongoing probes. A career grifter attracts like-minded minions, and criminal scrutiny on many levels. Well over a dozen members of Trump’s inner circle have now either admitted to crimes or resigned in disgrace.

And as prosecutors slowly unravel the shady intermingling of Trump’s business with his campaign and public office, it helps to re-examine his charity, for a glimpse of Christmas future.

The Washington Post’s David Farenthold won a Pulitzer for laying out this scheme back in 2016. The central fraud is that Trump convinced other people to give, then shamelessly used their money to promote his own interests.

The Trump Foundation was “little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” in the recent words of the New York Attorney General.

“Individual Number One,” as the president is called in court filings, repeatedly broke IRS rules by reporting that his foundation gave gifts to charities that never actually received the money, the Post reported.

Instead, Trump used it to settle lawsuits against him for fraud. He used it to make an illegal contribution to a Florida Attorney General who was about to investigate Trump University for swindling students – then, lo and behold, decided not to.

He used it to stay chummy with other charities that paid handsomely to rent his event spaces, by buying himself gifts at their auctions, like a gargantuan portrait of himself.

Contrast this with the Clintons’ nonprofit, which faced a series of unproven allegations, has been investigated for years, yet is still up and running. In the end, apparently, the Clinton Foundation was a charity that did good work around the world, while the Trump Foundation was a slush fund for the Trump family. Lock him up.

It’s also a case study in how he operates. Trump University was a similar self-promotional scam, preying on people wowed by his shiny brand. Trump profited while they were driven into debt for a worthless "degree.”

We saw the same in Atlantic City. Trump lured investors with big promises, then started casinos with their money, and by borrowing at such high interest rates that the businesses had virtually no chance of succeeding.

Next, he looted the casinos, siphoning their cash into his other real estate ventures, using it to pay off his personal loans, spruce up his private jet and pay himself millions. He declared bankruptcy, over and over, and shorted the small businesses in Atlantic City that were unlucky enough to sign deals with him.

Instead of building a successful enterprise, in other words, Trump uses other people’s money like his own personal checkbook, while they assume all the risk. Then he cashes in when it all crashes down.

It’s the generous donors to his charity, the low-income students at his school and the blue-collar contractors who go unpaid for their work who are the big losers.

One can only imagine how he’s profited off the White House. Trump has faced only civil penalties so far, getting off with lies, settlements and fines. But Mueller and these other probes could change all that.

No more donors will be duped through Trump’s Foundation, thanks to New York prosecutors. But a “shocking pattern of illegality” continues to define this president.

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