When you elect a hustler, you can expect to be hustled.

Whatever his perceived strengths – tell it like it is, tough guy, disruptor of the status quo, cleanser of the swamp, champion of the forgotten, breaker of unfair treaties, deal maker without peer – the guy who is our 45th president was, is, and until the day he departs this vale of tears, will be, a hustler.

I don’t say that as a condemnation, or with anger. It’s just an observation. He is what he is.

How else can you explain someone who can make millions by allowing developers the privilege, for a price, of plastering the name of this serial bankrupt across the façades of their high-end buildings without himself having invested a dime in the cost of construction?

You must give credit where credit is due.

Being a hustler is not intrinsically evil. From “Professor” Harold Hill of Music Man fame, to P.T. Barnum, who is credited with saying “there’s a sucker born every minute” (whether he said it or not), we Americans have a soft spot for the scallywags who live by their wits at the expense of the impressionable, or to be less conciliatory, the gullible.

As P.T. Barnum said proudly of himself, “I am a showman by profession, and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.”

And nothing will make our president other than what he is, a showman by profession – despite all the faux Louis XIV gilding.

The thing about hustlers is the importance of recognizing when one is being hustled. Then you can enjoy the ride rather than simply being taken on it.

The most recent example of a hustle is what our friend, who is a master at branding, has labeled “Spygate.”

“Liegate” might be a more accurate tag line.

Let’s face it, our president is beset by many storms – and not just the one that may first come to mind when you hear that word. His administration is the “victim of a witch hunt,” which to date has resulted in only 19 criminal indictments, five felony guilty pleas, and one Dutch lawyer serving time at public expense. The president’s private business dealings are coming under increased scrutiny, as are those of multiple members of his entourage, both past and present. His favorite “fixer” faces the possibility of a fixed term of imprisonment.

None of this is good news for the gentleman who successfully hustled his way from Brooklyn to the Oval Office.

What is needed is a diversion, a shuffling of the walnut shells to hide the pea.

And “Spygate” is conceived.

The hustle is that during the 2016 election campaign the FBI planted a “spy” in his campaign organization to dig up dirt to help his opponent and hurt him.

To refresh our memories, this is the same FBI that “helped” his opponent by investigating her use of emails for months, made the damning results of that investigation public, and then, to be even more “helpful,” told the world the investigation was being reopened ten days before the election.

With help like that…

Meanwhile, the same FBI allegedly was “hurting” him by keeping under wraps the fact his campaign was being investigated at the same time for possible illegal influence being peddled by a foreign power.

Come on …

And what facts are advanced in support of this latest claim?

Well, after information about a drunken conversation in a London bar was passed on to the FBI by an Australian diplomat, the agency did use an “informant” to strike up conversations with figures in the campaign to check out the story. The Federal Bureau of Investigations does, from time to time, utilize “informants” in carrying out its investigations. An informant is not a spy as those terms are understood in law enforcement-speak.

And beyond the FBI doing what it would have been negligent not to have done, what else?

The only sound you hear is the beating of a drum directing your attention from wherever it is, to this new fake scandal.

Repeat the allegation often enough, say it loud enough, and it begins to be what it is not – a claim that has some legitimacy to it.

You can’t blame the guy for trying to create an atmosphere of doubt.

But you don’t have to believe him either.