The word collusion probably won’t come up in the Alexandria, Va., courtroom where Paul Manafort sweats out much of this and the next few weeks. It’s possible, too, that Donald Trump won’t be mentioned, at least not often.

But make no mistake: Manafort’s trial on bank- and tax-fraud charges, stemming from political consulting in Ukraine that predates his stint with Trump’s 2016 campaign, has plenty to do with the president and plenty of potential to hurt him.

That’s not just because Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is tightening the screws on Manafort in the hope — apparently futile so far — of extracting unrelated evidence against Trump. It’s because Manafort is such a gilded, sordid reminder of the company that Trump keeps and of how he sees and navigates the world. They’re like-spirited plutocrats. Fellow plunderers.

As prosecutors lay out their case against Manafort, jurors will hear about a man whose vanity and thirst for splendor eclipsed any discretion about whom he joined forces with, where he had to travel to consort with them and how he conducted his business. Sound like any real estate tycoon you know?