Jacob Weisberg

Nearly everyone who chooses to work for Donald Trump is disreputable in one way or another; Ali Baba didn't find 40 wise men in the cave. But to label everyone in Trumpworld a grifter misses important subtleties. It conflates grifters and grafters, and it ignores the crucial distinction between the two.

American Journalist

Donald Trump is an archetypal grifter. Using the presidency to promote your golf courses, hotels, and real estate business is grifting. So is getting people to pay a premium for buildings with your name in big, gold letters. Licensing your name is what every grifter dreams about.

Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.

For the grifter, ripping people off is seldom the point. The grifter is an artiste who invests in the long con.

Grifter implies dishonesty and is used negatively to describe deceitful individuals.

Negative Connotation

Primarily used in informal settings and might be considered too casual for formal writing.

Colloquial Usage

Grifters often appear in movies and books as charming tricksters, but real-life implications are serious.