as surely as a bear shits in the woods

...while the cash sat in the Cayman Islands.

to find a lender.

He was broke and saw being president as a way to grift his way out of the red. I don't think he wanted to hide his taxes because of the scams as much as the losses (yeah, there were scams as well) because that is what sold a lot of people on him in the first place.

Russia.

Putting money into Trump was the best investment Putin ever made.

(1) Trump couldn't lose that much on purpose.

(2) Remember Trump's sister had to retire from the federal bench to stop a judicial ethics investigation about the family taxes.

"Rhetorical questions for $200, Alex."

Eric Trump in 2014: 'We have all the funding we need out of Russia ...

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=erik+trump+money+from+russia

Banks and taxpayers hold the bag of manure and he walks away with the milk. Set it up to fail to avoid paying the investors. Walk away with the investment and the insurance you bought to cover losses. Claim the max losses possible in a given year and carry the rest over to another year.

It is "mostly" legal.
Ethical, not so much.