To be involved in litigation is to live by the calendar. To be involved in numerous civil and criminal lawsuits at the same time is to live in Hell and by the calendar. Donald Trump is a litigious being who never used to worry about breaking the law because whenever he ended up in court he just delayed and wore the other side out. He reached settlements because his adversaries decided that it was best just to resolve the matter without going completely broke or completely mad, or both. But those days are done now.
Trump has come under both state and federal indictment, plus his notable civil actions in New York, which settled for $91M and $454M. Trump put up the $91M bond with money he had in a brokerage account as collateral and that left him hurting for the $454M, which he needed to post in the Trump Organization fraud trial. His quest for the bond turned into quite the saga, with Trump claiming how unfair, unprecedented and impossible it was to obtain such a bond. So the appellate court cut him a break and said, “Come up with $175M.” Trump agreed to do so. He has until April 4, Thursday, to come up with the money. What if he can’t get it?
I’ll be very surprised if Trump puts up his own cash, not least because the amount may represent as much as half of his liquid holdings. More likely he’ll go back to his bond brokers. I asked Mark Levinson, a bond broker with Brunswick Companies (and my new best friend) about the revised $175 million target. “That’s still a very large number,” Levinson said, for a private appeal bond (as opposed to an appeal bond for a publicly traded company). But it’s “probably manageable” for Trump, Levinson said. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t get it.”
But Levinson presumes a degree of rationality in Trump that may not exist. Trump may or may not have $175 million in securities above and beyond the $91 million in a Schwab brokerage account that he reportedly used to collateralize a bond backed by Chubb in the E. Jean Carroll case. We know Trump has a lot of equity in Truth Social, which he just took public, but he’s barred for six months from using that as collateral. And even if Trump possesses additional liquid investments, he’ll be reluctant to put them up as collateral for the same reason that surety firms prefer collateral in the form of cash and securities to collateral in the form of real estate: It’s much easier to grab in the event that Trump loses his appeal. Which, let’s face it, is likelier than not.
What surety firm would step forward to cover a $175 million bond for Trump? Levinson told me he thinks it will be Chubb. We know (from Trump’s legal team) that Chubb tried very hard to put together a deal on the $454 million, finally giving up because the deal depended on using real estate as collateral. But we also know that Chubb caught a lot of flak for underwriting Trump’s $91 million Carroll bond, and that Chubb’s chief executive, Evan Greenberg, ended up writing a letter to investors and employees explaining why it would lend that much money to a man so very famous for stiffing his creditors. Greenberg’s rationale was not very clear, raising suspicions that he expects some unsavory return from a future President Trump. Does Greenberg want to invite even more inquiries into Chubb’s possible motives?
At the press conference, Trump seemed not to have given up on the idea that his real estate holdings could be used as collateral on the $175 million. “Most buildings, I have no debt,” Trump said. “Most clubs, I have no debt.” As with many things that Trump says, any relationship these assertions bear to the truth would be mere coincidence. Trump also went on about the value of his “brand,” even going so far as to assert that “I became president because of the brand.” Was Trump trying to suggest that the Oval Office might be leveraged to compensate whatever fool lends him $175 million? Possibly so. In the meantime, New York’s appeals court sets Trump up for possible humiliation three days after Easter. Robbed of his crown of thorns, Trump still may not come up with the cash. If that happens, he won’t be the Messiah. Just a deadbeat.
You have to admit, this is a theory that fits the facts. Not too many people take to social media to rage on a major holiday. But they might if they had to come up with $175M in a few business days and they didn’t have it or any way of getting it. It’s also well known that Trump processes his feelings on social media. He certainly processed a lot of feelings today, 71 posts worth, as a matter of fact. Even for Trump, that’s some kind of a record.
He probably doesn’t have the money for the Trump Organization appeal. That’s one thing. And with respect to the E. Jean Carroll case, has anybody seen an appellate lawyer hired? Maybe Trump could hire one lawyer to do both appeals? Or, maybe he’s tried to do exactly that and nobody wants the job(s)? Which means that he’s going to end up paying the fine on both cases. That’s how it works, either find an issue, a reversible error, and take the case up on appeal and win the appeal, or the ruling of the lower court stands and you pay the money.
This is terra incognita to Trump. He’s not used to going to trial. He’s not used to losing. He’s used to working things out in settlement, and that ship sailed long ago with respect to both of these cases.
Plus now he’s gotten himself embroiled in another frivolous lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopolous, for defamation, and that’s going to be another time and money suck. And then he’s got the hush money trial coming up on the 15th of April.
Just imagine how Trump is going to look if he can’t come up with the $175M after bragging how he was going to pay the bond “with cash” and then the next week shows up at the hush money trial and everybody knows how broke he is?
This, methinks, is the reason Trump went into a 71-post meltdown on Truth Social today. This is the road immediately ahead. He’s looking at it and it is grim. And there’s little or nothing that he can do.
And let’s face it, Trump could have a criminal conviction under his belt before not too much longer and that’s got to put a different spin on the GOP convention and his nomination. The plot is thickening and things are not looking so good for Trump. Color him petrified.
Regardless of whether or not he comes up with the $175M by 4/4 he is still a deadbeat-has been for decades-and despite the delusions of con xtians, he is no messiah. He is a petty, foul-mouthed, ignorant snake oil salesman and has been so for decades. His posts on the s.m. company he calls “truth” social sound like those a grade school bratty little girl would post if she could get away with it. He is an extreme embarrassment to the country and as much as I want to see him humiliated in court, it will also be a humiliation for our nation.
The nation has already been humiliated. The GOP continues their self-flagellation. I would not be surprised, honestly, if Trump gets convicted in the hush money trial if Nikki Haley or somebody tries to do a write-in campaign or in some manner topple Trump from the ticket. Whatever happens this summer will be one for the books, that much is safe to say.
I don’t think my thumbs could work fast enough to post that many things in one night. Even on my iPad, it would be a YUGE challenge.
If you were on some mad, manic run you’d surprise yourself with what you could do. This isn’t normal. I hope niece Mary chimes in with her professional opinion. I always enjoy that.
When my lying whore catholic hypocrite of a wife cheated on me, destroyed my family and finances through a biased corrupt court, and my legal divorce agreement was ignored by the court, I was under a 1200. child support per month. When I had a legitimate reason for an inability to pay due to a loss of employment, I wasn’t given any leniency. I was found in contempt and led out of court in handcuffs and LEGIRONS! So any of you want to justify the reason he isn’t in jail???? Don’t waste your time. The law is an institution of HYPOCRISY set up by the rich for the rich. FACT!!!! America a goddamn monument to imaginary bullshit.
A friend of mine, a lawyer, told me years ago: “There are two criminal justice systems in America, one for the rich, one for the poor. Don’t let anybody ever tell you different.” So far I have had no reason to doubt his word.
Chubb may have backed the $91 million for the Carrol case, but another $175 million would take the total to more than a quarter billion dollars.
Since Trump is, on all actual evidence, NOT a billionaire, it’s clear he can’t afford it. And neither can Chubb, who have their shareholders to consider, shareholders living in reality and not the Trump derangement bubble. (Notwithstanding the political leanings of their CEO.)
It’s looking possible that when Trump said he had the cash, he might have been lying?
Chubb continues to operate in Russia. coincidence? Me thinks not
Yep, and there are a lot of RICH out there & in here, who would love to see Trump in charge! The HUGE Koch Industries & their lobbyists are just one of many….