What better conditions could there be to sell us out?

In the months after the 2016 election, it was an article of faith among Trump supporters that election interference was a ridiculous notion. Forget collusion, the prospect of Russian influence or attempted influence alone was nothing but a slur against the new president. Liberal tears, sour grapes, get over it, etc.

Today 13 people have been charged, and officials are being briefed on past intrusions and attempts on voter rolls and systems. The director of national intelligence is saying “Frankly, the United States is under attack.”

A state of unrelenting, indecipherable crisis is upon us, and it’s a massive gift to the president — both as an authoritarian and as a scam artist.

Congress is paralyzed on issues that have the support of 80 percent of citizens. The president can inflame a third of the country to hate the other two-thirds on any given topic at his beck and call. Another 17 dead people are used to extend the unending debate on gun violence. White supremacists crow about their reach and influence.

There’s nothing but noise. But the dollars keep flowing into the Trump Organization from businesses currying favor, foreign governments, and oligarchs buying up empty condo developments to launder money.

Exactly no one benefits — except the Trump family. What better conditions could there be to sell us out and erode our Constitution?

This is from an investigation by that left-wing rag called Forbes:

“It’s a conflict of interest unprecedented in American history. But hardly unanticipated. The Founding Fathers specifically built this contingency into the Constitution through the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits U.S. officials from accepting gifts, titles or “emoluments” from foreign governments…

Much of the yammering in this area surrounds Trump’s hotels, especially the one in Washington, D.C., which has billed $268,000 in hotel rooms and catering to the Saudi government, and his international licensing deals, which allow foreign tycoons and hucksters, many with connections to their local governments, to pay the Trump Organization more than $5 million a year in order to profit from the president’s name in far-flung locales.

But that’s all small potatoes. The real money in the Trump empire comes from commercial tenants like [a particular] Chinese bank. Forbes estimates these tenants pay a collective $175 million a year or so to the president. And they do so anonymously. Federal laws, drafted without envisioning a real estate billionaire as president, require Trump to publicly disclose the shell companies he owns — but not the hundreds of businesses pouring money into them or even the extent of the money involved…

The tragedy of this $175 million mess is that it was completely avoidable. Right after Trump was elected, most assumed the septuagenarian would divest his assets and engage in the biggest job in the world with clean hands. Since his company basically consists of assets and management deals, he could have set in motion a liquidation process. His iconic towers would still carry his name. And when he left office, he could surely take that cash hoard to again buy properties or leverage his higher profile to yet more and better licensing deals. Shortly after the election, he tweeted: “Legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”

By “completely out,” the president meant letting his sons run it, and this creature of habit keeps his full ownership, along with the scores of payments that come with it.”