OPINION: C’mon voters, is it really that hard to recognize a fraud?

Do you trust Donald Trump? Does he truly want to help you and your family, putting your interests ahead of his own? Or does he treat the lives of others like toys to be broken and thrown away?

America has wasted too much time on this risible huckster, distracting us with his endless lies and trivializing issues that truly matter. His schtick has long gone stale, but the modern GOP has tied itself to the mast of the SS Trump. That ship is foundering and, like its cargo cult leader, this aberrant new strain of Republicans will sink as well.

Political power is ephemeral, and the MAGA movement is losing steam as everyday Americans grow disillusioned with its spiteful, obstructionist antics.

It’s the lies, and the fear mongering, and the empty promises that will prove Trump’s undoing. He’s fond of announcing grand plans — free IVF for all! — but the goods never arrive and the promises go unfilled. It’s a familiar pattern that has played his supporters for suckers, time and again.

During the 2016 campaign, he vowed to “… repeal Obamacare on Day 1.” He probably could have done it, as he had a GOP-led House and a GOP-led Senate for the first two years of his presidency. In fact, he took no substantive action regarding the Affordable Care Act, which was a good thing because the number of ACA enrollees continues to swell. Health care is expensive, and everyday Americans need help with those bills.

Other than straining diplomatic relations with allies around the world, the only major accomplishment from Trump’s time in office was tax cuts that disproportionately benefited America’s wealthiest people.

Did that make a difference in your life?

It doesn’t seem to matter, because Trump’s supporters stand by him like defeated soldiers living in caves long after the war is over, pledging fealty to the emperor and unwilling to admit they were duped. His core constituents are economically disadvantaged Americans, yet he does little for them beyond coining mean-spirited slogans. They give him diamonds while he gives them disease but, for some reason, they still vote for him.

Why? Because white, working-class voters find him entertaining. When he’s not heaping self-congratulatory praise on himself, he is insulting, and belittling, and attacking anyone who crosses him. He is road rage with a Secret Service detail, and he reserves particular contempt for career civil servants, academics and the mainstream media — and his supporters lap it up. “That’s right! Stick it to those soft-handed lefties!”

As Washington Post columnist Matt Bai noted last month, “These voters don’t support Trump because they labor under some illusion that he’s going to rescue their communities — not anymore. They support him because he’s willing to blow up the country if it means teaching insufferable intellectuals a lesson. ... It’s the same vengeful impulse that leads to autocracy in unequal societies all over the world. It is, at its core, unpatriotic, no matter how many flags you fly, or how many ways you try to rationalize it.”

To his supporters, reinstalling Trump in the White House would be a statement of defiance, striking a blow for the little guy, thumbing their noses at a tidy civil society.

That’s what they’re willing to admit publicly but, like an iceberg, there’s a lot more beneath the surface that goes unspoken. The racism. The misogyny. The smug righteousness of piety. These are the real pillars that prop up Trump’s chaotic attempt at leadership.

Looking ahead to Nov. 5, Trump will lose the popular vote by millions upon millions of votes, but he’ll still be competitive thanks to the Electoral College. He and his toadies will lie, cheat and steal to reach 270 electoral votes; last time out, 84 phony electors in seven states solemnly swore that Donald J. Trump won their state. Who knows what Team Trump will cook up this time?

Keep in mind that Donald Trump isn’t thinking about you and how to improve the quality of your life. At this point, his aspirations fall into two broad categories: 1) Separating other people from their money; and 2) Staying out of prison.

So stop staring into the funhouse mirror and face up to reality: Donald Trump can’t be trusted to protect an anvil.

He certainly can’t be trusted to protect America.

Brock has been a Daily News columnist for more than 22 years. He has lived on the Palouse even longer.