How will Trump pay $354 million for real estate fraud? Your campaign donations, of course!

If you go to the online campaign shop for former president and noted fraudster Donald Trump – and I don’t recommend that you do – you’ll find a dumb red “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” hat for $40.

Following New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling Friday that Trump must pay more than $350 million in penalties for committing years of financial fraud, the leading GOP presidential candidate needs to sell about 8.75 million hats in a hurry.

In the ruling, Engoron wrote that Trump and his two adult sons and others in the Trump organization “submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements,” and when confronted with the facts at trial they “simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences.”

Sounds about right for Trump, if we’re being honest. The next time he admits to doing something wrong will be the first time. We’ve seen from his pathetic refusal to admit he lost the 2020 presidential election that denying reality is his favorite pastime. It's second, I imagine, to fleecing his supporters of their hard-earned money.

Engoron wrote of Trump and Co. in his ruling: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on the pathological.”

Trump will fundraise off this latest ruling against him, of course

You can hear the email pitches now: “Supporters of our great PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Are you going to let a DEEP STATE judge get away with calling our BELOVED president ‘pathological’? DONATE $50 right now to send a STRONG MESSAGE that you support THE GREATEST PRESIDENT OF ALL TIME. If you don’t, he will know and be VERY DISAPPOINTED!”

Fools and their money are fixin’ to be parted, I’m afraid.

GOP lies? Looks like Republicans' star Biden impeachment witness is a liar. Who saw that coming?

Friday’s $350-million-plus penalty goes on top of the $83 million a civil federal jury ordered Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation last month. (Trump was found liable of sexual abuse in that case, so ... you know ... maybe consider that before you send him a dime.)

Your donations aren't being used for the election, suckers

And if there’s any question as to whether Trump is using donor money to fund his multiple legal defenses, recent campaign finance reports showed that two of his primary political action committees, Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC, unloaded more than $49.6 million in donor money on the former president’s legal fees.

As The New York Times reported: “Mr. Trump, who has long been loath to pay lawyers himself and has a history of stiffing those who represent him, has used funds in his political action committee, known as Save America, to underwrite his legal bills. The account was originally flooded with donations that were collected during the period immediately after the 2020 election when he was making widespread and false claims of voting fraud.”

It almost sounds pathological, right?

Forget the Supreme Court. Voters will be the ones to rid us of Trump.

Donald Trump needs $350 million, and he needs it fast. Please donate!

Anyhoo, there will be ample screaming and hollering from Trump about how unfair Justice Engoron is and how it’s all a big WITCH HUNT and blah, blah, blah. But when you look at the totality of evidence against Trump – detailed evidence from financial filings and the testimony of accounting experts – the “WITCH HUNT!” hollers sound more like sour grapes and, as Engoron wrote, a denial of reality.

Despite advertising himself as a lavishly wealthy and successful businessman, Trump’s not about to spend his own money when there are rubes out there to be fleeced.

So prepare for a tsunami of fundraising solicitations and offers of buy-one-get-one-free MAGA hats and chances to have lunch with Trump if you just donate $500 (read the fine print, please). It'll say it's to get him reelected, but it's not. It's to keep him solvent while the consequences of his actions finally start catching up to him.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to pay $354 million in fraud case. Fundraising scams start now!