Be of good cheer, friends. Donald Trump may have won another small battle with the appellate court ruling that he could post $175M instead of $464M, but he’s still on the hook for the entire judgment — unless he wins an appeal and as we have noted before, if he has an appellate lawyer, that fact has been kept secret.
So drop what you are doing and watch a classic from Lincoln Project, Phantom Of The MAGA. I loved it so so much I watched it twice and plan to watch it again.
Join us for a musical tale about a grotesque man who abuses power, controls women, and in the end loses everything. pic.twitter.com/bIj1XJhiy2
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 25, 2024
And here’s a troll doing counter programming on the bottom clip, to the tune of Dream On.
— SB (@draintheswamps7) March 25, 2024
It’s another crazy day and it’s only just beginning. But now you’ve seen Fat Man Phantom Of The Opera in delightful parody and it should spice up your morning. Trump’s court win today was slight, not yuge.
However, while the panel eased the financial cloud over Trump, it did not erase it entirely. The panel gave Trump 10 days to come up with the reduced bond of $175 million. Trump’s attorneys had previously sought to post a $100 million bond, rather than the full amount, and have not said whether he can meet the $175 million threshold.
James, who brought the lawsuit against Trump and his company, said Trump misstated the value of his properties and other assets by up to $2.2 billion a year from 2011 to 2021. A judge in February ordered that Trump pay more than $450 million as a penalty. Trump’s attorneys have suggested that he would struggle to finance a bond of that size, saying they had tried and failed to get more than two dozen companies to help secure the bond.
An attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Trump himself was in a New York courtroom Monday for a hearing in an unrelated criminal case, related to hush money payments made to an adult-film actress.
A spokesperson for the attorney general said: “Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud. The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. The $464 million judgment — plus interest — against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands.”
Trumpty is still going down, maybe just a trifle more slowly. Here’s some commentary from Rick Wilson.
Unless Tik Tok investor Jeff Yass or some generous Saudi, Russian, or tech-bro sugar daddy pops in a wire transfer to Trump this morning, the mechanical process of seizing his fraudulently-gained assets begins, and once it starts, it won’t stop. Even if a sugar daddy comes along, it’s a sunk-cost. Trump has no loyalty, gratitude, or honor, so he’ll screw over the people who bail him out just like any other greater-fool investor in any of his enterprises.
Here’s the other thing everyone seems to be missing; Trump’s behavior isn’t going to change and his legal peril continues at scale. You can’t blame him; he’s a sociopath, and he’s gotten away with criming for so long, what’s a bit more? The E. Jean Carroll case is a perfect example. He’s well on his way to Defamation Penalty III because he can’t shut his cake flap or conform his behavior.
They will take his bank accounts and properties one by one even though said properties are in large measure financial dogs and not even worth a fraction what Trump claims.
The empire his father built over decades, and Trump slowly squandered and burnt to the ground will not pass on to his sons and his daughter-wife. The lending world will see them as sub-prime risks, at best.
They’ll sell off a bit here and a bit there, living comfortably enough. Cokely Trump has already embraced being a shitposting edgelord, Ivanka is living off Jared’s Bonesaw Bucks, and Eric still looks like a man easily overcome by inanimate objects. Baron Trump is still off-limits…so far…but Melania’s plan to establish a Slovenian monarchy can’t be far away.
I’m mostly watching the hardest hit group of Americans; MAGA voters who view this proceeding as the terminal moment in the American experiment. The rhetoric is rising on the right about the seizure of his assets, carefully eliding the reasons. “They’re communists seizing his assets” always misses a) the misapplication of communism as a term of approbation, and b) all the damn fraud.
They believed him to be a rich and incorruptible a man for whom money made nothing , a man who they thought was beyond the blandishments of the Washington elites the lobbyist and the corporations. This was always a stupid illusion, but it was a persistent.
That nearly-religious belief in Trump’s wealth gave them a sense of comfort. He was independent. He was a deal-maker. He was the irrepressible and incorruptible CEO would would “make deals for America” the way he did in his imaginary businesses career. This idea Trump couldn’t be bought was utterly risible, shaped their beliefs, especially when contrasted with career politicians, even those with impeccable, conservative credentials.
Many will cling to it. A fraction will see the revelation that they’ve been conned by a con man of epic scope and step back.
And MAGA is right about one thing. The best is yet to come. We’re watching Trumpty Dumpty fall apart. He knows he’s not going to win. That’s why he’s starting in with the stolen election drivel.
The magats were bamboozled. They bought the snake oil and chugged it down like they do the cheap-ass beer they drink. I guess they think someone finding out they were wrong, and they surely must know they are or they are at BEST brain-dead, is the worst of all worlds. I do not understand this attitude-being wrong is part of living life and the ongoing learning process that goes hand and hand with that living. Sure, sometimes I’m wrong and I’m a bit red-faced about it but I damned sure learn from it so I don’t make a fool of myself again. Magats see trump telling lies, ignoring facts, saying clueless/stupid/hateful things and they realize they too can do this: surely if it is alright for the occupier of the oval to do such things it is ok for them as well. Of course when they start violating the law and are caught, they’re not going to be spared and their turd emperor is not going to bail their asses out. Yeah, I hear he’s going to pardon the j-6’rs but except for personal friends and the wealthy people he knows & those who are famous/infamous and for whom pardoning pisses off the people he wants to piss off–could be the j-6’rs fit that bill. Who knows? Point is, when Mr./Mrs. white, xtian, con starts breaking the law, and if he becomes dick-tator those laws will become numerous and not easy on those who complain about anything he might do, their asses will be off to the pokey in a pico.
There’s no reasoning with a cult. Just encourage them to cough in each other’s faces, send in all their cash putting them on the street where danger lurks, and to drink their goddamn poisoned grape juice to leave permanently to go see…er…Jesus. If he steals the next election, and establishes his murderous dictatorship, then be happy the guns over people party have made gun possession a high priority, especially the military weapons we vets know all about. You know…the kind to shoot nazis. Now cue up the criticism from non vets who forget what it took in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the World wars to stop tyranny. Must be nice to enjoy the fruits of liberty without ever wearing a uniform to defend it. Somewhere some poor bastard is standing guard duty.
Lowbrow MAGAts can’t enjoy the Tik Tok shared by The Lincoln Project. As a highbrow snob, I liked a bunch! Brilliance!