Sometimes you start a story with the ending first and this is one of those times. Two endings happening, inter-related: The end of the RNC and the end of Trump’s pretense that he’s got unlimited capital. That’s the story we’re about to see unfolding. To start, Lara Trump becoming Ronna McDaniel’s successor was humorously mentioned three, four weeks ago. But now it’s actually happening. Yes, “some other mook will be named as co-chair,” to quote Rick Wilson, but the actual possession of the RNC coffers will be in the hands of Lara and strategist Chris LaCivita. Trump will fiddle as the RNC burns — and we mean burns through cash. His finances are the stuff of nightmares.
The colossal, roaring burn rate of the Trump campaign’s recent spending leaves political professionals with their jaws hanging down. The Sucker ATM of his email list is drying out after eight years of sending in their disability and Social Security checks to the Grifter In Chief, and it’s still not even close to enough.
In January, they raised $8.8 million…and spent $11.4 million. This math doesn’t work. It’s totally unsustainable. It means Trump can’t reserve paid media —digital, cable, and broadcast — in advance at more favorable rates and availabilities. It means they can’t scale into targeted states with staff and operations.
The Trump SuperPACS are spending the lion’s share of their revenue defending his legal bills, this cash crunch is a brutal reminder that he’s in a deep financial hole that’s getting deeper and darker by the day. It was one thing for him to skim off the top from 2017 and on, but now the bills have a lot of zeroes on them, and there’s only so much dumb small-dollar MAGA money out there.
How deep and how dark? Trump owes $453.5 million if you add $98.6 million in pre-judgment interest to his $352 million in fines, ruled by the court. Trump had claimed last year that he had $400 million in cash, so you can see that while $400 million in liquid funds is an amazing figure, it isn’t amazing enough to crack this nut. And don’t lose sight of the additional $83.3 million judgment owed to E. Jean Carroll. So what’s the solution? Let Lara tell you.
Okay so… Trump is taking over the RNC?
That's a BIG boon for the Democrats.
The RNC will be broke 5 minutes after he gets his hands on it.
— The Fact Checker (@MonitorFake) February 22, 2024
Trump cannot get loans. That’s pretty much a given. He can’t get a loan from any bank chartered in New York, pursuant to Justice Engoron’s order, and that’s all of the big ones. So what he’s got to do is use the RNC as his personal piggybank.
Two other things to add to this toxic mix: 1. Letitia James intends to seize assets, she’s made that totally clear, and 2. forget about an appeal on the Trump Organization fraud case. You notice how you don’t hear a thing about that? Trump said he was looking for lawyers a few weeks ago? Either he’s still looking or he’s given up.
While Donald’s attorney Alina Habba promised to appeal the judgement, James has already signaled it will be a waste of time:
In remarks during her interview with ABC news, James emphasized that she is “‘very confident’ about the strength of her case on appeal.”
Why? Because Engoron’s conclusions themselves were based on hard evidence —evidence that includes documents that “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business.”
This wealth of documents includes financial records, loan applications, and internal communications within the Trump Organization. These documents provided the court with a detailed trail of transactions, valuations, and misrepresentations. No appellate court will be able to ignore such evidence.
So: No appeal, Lara and Chris LaCivita in charge of the RNC money — at least until the RNC is completely tapped out — and then we may see Trump go ahead and liquidate Trump Tower or some other assets to pay his judgments.
Or, will the 168-member RNC board decide to save itself and vote somebody else in, in order to preserve the RNC over Trump? Perhaps. If the RNC tries that, then Trump’s MAGAfied allies in the Republican party of course won’t allow that, so you may see a mini-revolution right there within the RNC. Rick Wilson seems to think that the Trump takeover of the RNC is a fait accompli and far be it from me to challenge his knowledge of how that organization works.
The Lara Trump takeover — yes, they named some other mook as chairman, but Lara and Trump Strategist Chris LaCitiva — who is the smartest person in Trump’s orbit by a long stretch — are there to bleed and bleed and bleed the RNC until it’s a desiccated husk. Write it down: before this is over, they’ll have to borrow against the building on C Street.
The ways the RNC works is too arcane to delve into here, but suffice to say, the worm-filled can they just bought is full of bitter, needy, foot-stomping state GOP committeemen and committeewomen who make Trump look positively Stoic.
This is going to be some shitshow. The way Trump is burning through money and with his enormous legal bills to boot, he’s making Ron DeSantis’ campaign look almost frugal by comparison.
How long can it all last? And what about the down ballot? What about the money for the congressmembers and senators who need to either get reelected or flip a few seats red?
I guess we’re going to find out.
there is a civil war in texas with abbott, paxton and patrick attacking every moderate republican in the state. I get the ads every day. and attack ads in the other direction. paxton is now trying to shut down a Catholic Charity in El Paso called Assuncion House for giving food and shelter to migrants, saying they support sex trafficking. this is all out war, these goons are doing every thing they can to cause the most harm to people on purpose. they are spending all their money on the primary, I guess expecting no one will forget what they have done in the general.
Thank you for outlining the horrors they are doing here in Texas. I keep thinking that on the national level, the outrageous obstruction has to be making an impression on voters. I certainly hope voters will not forget these misdeeds, come election day.
American voters have astonishingly short memories. MOST pols depend on this. Republican pols depend on this as if it is the air they breathe and their base is basically an oxygen tank.
When the smoke clears, let the democrats win all races, passes laws to correct the evil done by criminal Republicans, promote social justice, put all the nazi traitors in jail, and let the rest find themselves out of power and looking for minimum wage jobs! Trump can watch it all on the TV in the rec room in federal prison.
The question was asked elsewhere, would we rather see Trump dead or jailed. This was my response:
I prefer jailed, and his life is extended ’til he turns 100. Solitary confinement at a super prison. No contact other than monthly visits from his old, male attorney and his taciturn, mute guards. Vegan diet. Once a week, 30 minutes alone in an exercise yard followed by his weekly shower…still alone, no matter how many times he drops the soap.
That is an enticing scenario to be sure. Thing is, he would still be able to foment violence, disruption, etc. There is no way D.O.C. would be able to keep him away from visitors-granted they would be few but fauz nuz would figure in the total prominently, so his whining, his slurs, his ability to degrade anything and everything would still be around. If he is t*ts up, he becomes very, very quiet.
This is not to say his death would remove all disruption, etc.: I’m sure the magats would make everyone’s lives miserable for a period of time. I’m also sure they would finally figure out going to prison (I’m sure it would be insurrection-like at least) isn’t worth it for their mango messiah who, despite all their rioting, will not rise from the grave.
If he’s dead and gone, he’s gone. Sure, the miserable life he’d have in prison is kind of a plus but I’m not sure it’d be worth it.
Most of his crimes are white collar crimes involving financial fraud, election fraud, and inviting an insurrection. For those, he goes to a Club Fed which is minimum security. It will be easier for Secret Service to protect him there.
Hope for Bragg and Willis to put him in a state prison. That becomes a nightmare for Secret Service, because it will be damned hard for his protective detail to keep him.safe. Without them he would be unlikely to survive 6months, unless a white supremacist group like Aryan Nation makes it known he is under their protection, because his racism puts a target on his back.
I want him on house arrest with an ankle monitor, forced to take his meals in his apartment and allowed to walk no further than 100 feet, where he can see everyone else playing golf. his tv viewing would consist of channels that only run old sitcoms, educational programs,,PBS and one non-rght wing news station (CNN). Boos from a local library carefully screened. It would drive him.nuts.
This is playing out like the Shawshank Redemption; everyone gets their comeuppance for their life’s misdeeds. trump almost certainly doesn’t have the cash on hand to pay his penalties, and he can’t quickly sell or pledge his assets in the organization because they’re locked up under the stewardship of Barbara Jones. Even if he could, their valuations are unreliable because of the fraud he perpetrated. So, no bonding firm will touch him. Likewise, he can’t borrow against those assets for the same reason, and couldn’t in any case because he is prohibited from obtaining loans from any bank chartered in New York, which is virtually all of them.
His next to last recourse might be obtaining loans from very rich friends like Mohammed bin Salman or Egon Musk, but having spent his life stiffing people, no one with two neurons to rub together will give him a nickel. Besides, he has no friends, only sycophants.
The last option is to declare personal bankruptcy, which might throw a wrench into the legal process and delay his financial collapse for a year or two, but as Murf has pointed out he won’t do this because 1) his ego and 2) he knows it would ruin his public persona and destroy any chance of getting elected. Only the dumbest of the dumb would vote for a dead-beat bankrupt as president.
And then there’s the interest. It’s piling up at an accelerating rate of over $100k a day. What would it be in two years? Bankruptcy for trump is total, absolute annihilation. This is “what goes around comes around” gone thermonuclear, and it’s going to make one hell of a movie.
His ego did not prevent him from declaring bankruptcy several time over the years. If faced with the poorhouse or bankruptcy, he might choose the latter. You know after doing it he’ll tell the world just how “smart” he was to do so.
Yes but this time he’s not just winding up companies to avoid paying debt, he is personally going to have to declare bankruptcy himself. Personal bankruptcy is a whole other thing to cheating the system by bleeding companies dry, then leaving the husk for the creditors to squabble over.
His below Trump Org itself declared bankruptcies and for Trump it was likely an ego boost. Getting away with another con by milking a subsidiary for cash and leaving everyone else holding the bag. Hell, he has bragged about them being “smart business” decisions and in his mind doing that probably was. ONE time he found himself on the brink of having not taken the steps to fully insulate himself from an entity that was going bankrupt and somehow prevailed upon Fred, his father to bail his ass out. THAT it is reported scared the hell out of him. Probably cost a rash of people their jobs for not making sure he couldn’t be held personally accountable for a bankruptcy. Sadly, he learned that particular lesson well enough. Now? He got what he wanted once his dad was out of the picture and total control over the Trump Org and the finances. Sure, he took steps to avoid that situation he’d face where he could personally go bankrupt and keep the Trump Org itself insulated but he melded himself and the company together too well. One goes down so does the other. THAT is what’s freaking him the hell out now. It’s all coming to a head and he has neither the skill or the resources in good will to come up with what he owes in quick fashion.
It’s been too long coming but the cracks in the Trump dam have finally started to break open. Relatively small streams of water are starting to shoot out of the edifice but at some point, just like when an actual dam fails the unseen flaws will suddenly give way and the thing will blow wide open. That scene from Force 10 From Navarone comes to mind.
🫢
I would expect the court overseer to approve and carefully monitor the sale of assets to satisfy the court’s judgement. He wouldn’t be able to skim off a bunch for himself, but NY and Carroll could actually get paid. (in what order must his judgements be paid out, assuming he can’t afford the escrow to appeal?)