High stakes for former president

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/03/2024 (884 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It sure is rich that Donald Trump is crying poor.

And at the same time, he isn’t. Or something.

The Republican party candidate for the United States presidency and business mogul wants to appeal a guilty verdict in a civil-fraud trial brought on by the State of New York, where many of his companies and real estate holdings are located.

Arthur Engoron, a New York Supreme Court justice, ordered on Feb. 15 that Trump had to pay US$454 million, including millions in interest, after he ruled Trump and his company fraudulently inflated property assets to boost his net worth in an effort to gain financial perks from duped lenders and insurers.

For Trump’s appeal to proceed, he would need to cough up the same amount of money or an equivalent bond before today’s deadline.

It’s a price the self-proclaimed billionaire is either unwilling or unable to pay.

More than 30 surety companies have already rejected his requests to post the bond on his behalf.

They won’t accept his property as collateral either.

All this financial activity has caught Engoron’s attention, and he’s told the Trump camp that the court-ordered monitor of the Trump Organization must be informed in advance of any transaction regarding a bond.

State officials have complained that Trump tried and failed to move key assets from New York to Florida, where he lives, by switching addresses of several of his holdings.

Few people would have that much cash on hand, even a tycoon such as Trump, who says he’s made many business deals using “OPM”: other people’s money.

Even Elon Musk, once the world’s richest person, had to assemble financial resources from elsewhere to purchase Twitter for US$44 billion in 2022, even though his net worth far exceeded that amount at the time.

Then, in a post Friday on Truth Social, Trump claimed to have nearly US$500 million in cash, which he said he was saving for his presidential campaign, then went to calling Engoron an “often overturned hack judge” and saying the case against him was an example of communism.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the matter against Trump forward, has already taken steps to put liens on Trump’s property, preparing the groundwork to launch foreclosures or even seize Trump’s New York assets, should he not launch an appeal.

Those include the Trump National Golf Club and the nearby Seven Springs Estate, both of which take up 370 acres in tony Westchester County, just north of New York City.

Also susceptible to seizure are Big Apple real estate properties such as Trump Tower, not to mention the various hotels and apartment buildings in the city he owns.

Meanwhile, his lawyers have launched appeals to try to lower the bond amount, a tactic that has worked for other appellants in previous cases.

Should they find a ruling in Trump’s favour, it will likely rankle those who feel rich people such as Trump already receive a level of preferential treatment from the courts that those of lesser means can’t get.

Looming over all of the current convolutions? An odd stock market play to take Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group, public, which some argue could net Trump US$3 billion for his half of the company — even though Truth Social only had revenues of US$3 million in the first nine months of last year, and overall losses of US$50 million.

All of which makes today a remarkably high stakes day for a mercurial businessman and presidential candidate, his family, the Republican party, and perhaps the even the future of Canada’s largest trading partner and nearest neighbour.

Interesting times.