In the latest developments of Trump’s civil fraud case, the former president’s attorneys have told the court that their client is unable to secure the $464 million bond required to move forward with an appeal. Unless he forks over the money by next week, New York Attorney General Letitia James will likely start the process of forfeiting his assets.
Following years’ worth of investigation, former President Donald Trump and his affiliates were accused of committing mass business fraud during their time in New York. In February, Judge Arthur Engoron found them guilty of overvaluing their assets to receive preferential business deals.
As a result, Trump and his co-defendants are being held liable for $364 in damages, the sum of money they saved on interest rates and real estate sales from falsifying their financial records. Adding insult to injury, Judge Engoron also held the former president liable for accrued interest, adding another $100 million to the total he owes.
As is tradition, Trump has attacked this ruling as another Democrat-run and politically-motivated “witch hunt” rather than taking any sort of responsibility. Accordingly, he’s pledged to appeal the decision rather than to pay for the damages.
Unfortunately for him, in order to pursue an appeal, the former president first needs to post a bond equaling the full amount due. This is a regular process of the legal system to ensure that a judgment is paid in full if an appeal is unsuccessful.
Unsurprisingly, however, Trump has been entirely unable to find any insurers willing to help him pay his multi-million dollar bond. In fact, his lawyers claimed to have contacted as many as 30 separate companies without any success, calling a complete bond payment a “practical impossibility.” This allegedly included talks with one of the largest insurance companies in the world.
Worse, the total amount he would be obliged to pay a private insurer to cover this bond would likely exceed $1 billion in the long run, a colossal amount of money he might never be able to repay in full. With this in mind, it makes perfect sense why he wasn’t been able to find anyone willing to help him — no sane businessman would loan a serial fraudster millions of dollars without taking a healthy collateral.
Trump is pretty much screwed here; either he loses most of his assets to the state or owes an equally-sized debt to skeptical insurers.
Moreover, this perfectly underscores the irony of his current predicament. If Trump was anywhere near as rich as he’s always claimed, he should just be able to post a bond with his own cash without jumping through so many hurdles. For a self-proclaimed billionaire, a $464 million debt shouldn’t come as such an existential crisis.
The former president is worth much less than he claims, that much is certain. And what was this entire case about again? Oh yeah, Trump lying about his wealth.
At this point, what point is there in pursuing an appeal when your inability to post bond is another clear indicator of personal overvaluation — you know, the whole thing this case was about? This is too comedic even for late-night comedy writers to come up with.
Trump has until March 25 to come up with a full bond, otherwise, AG Letitia James can begin to seize Trump’s assets. If he remains unwilling or unable to pay in cash, the former president will have his properties seized and liquidated as the state’s only remaining option. James has even signaled that she’s willing to go after iconic holdings such as the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street and Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. That would be a huge punch in the gut.
If you were to ask me, it’s about time that somebody went and grabbed Trump by the assets. What goes around comes around, after all.
For far too long, Trump has cowered behind his real estate holdings to maintain his illusion of wealth and affluence. Once he loses his eponymous skyscrapers, his status as a failed president and failed businessman will only become more apparent. It would be the perfect punishment for defrauding so many people over the years.
Furthermore, this serves as another reminder about just how brainwashed the remainder of Trump’s political base has to be. Here’s someone who’s been busted for fraud amounting to millions of dollars, yet nearly half the country still views him as their salvation. The scummiest insurance companies in the world don’t even trust him to repay a loan — how on Earth could anyone still believe he has their best interests in mind?
Trump has always talked about running the country as if it were a business, and this just illustrates why he was such an awful and ineffective president. Like all of his failed companies, Trump’s approach to public office has revolved around cheating, stealing, and lying. If we re-elect him, we can rest assured he will once again lead the country in the same direction as he did with the Trump Organization: into the ground.
MAGA voters always talk about their desire to “drain the swamp,” yet they’re firmly standing behind one of the swampiest and sleaziest men in the entire country, if not the world. It takes a special type of stupid to be that gullible. Again, how can we trust someone like this with the nuclear codes and state secrets when we can’t even trust him with our credit cards?
$464 million is admittedly no small number, but it will be compared to the damage this man will inflict with a second term as president. Trump already scammed us once, we mustn’t allow him to do it again.
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