Donald Trump lashes out as clock runs down on his $464m bond payment
The clock is ticking.
On Monday, Donald Trump will face a reckoning with the legal system as he never has before.
Alongside his four criminal cases – totalling 88 charges – the civil fraud case against the former president, his adult sons Don Jr and Eric, the Trump Organization and two of its executives, seems somewhat underplayed.
It does, however, go someway to undoing two of the greatest myths about Mr Trump which helped propel him into the public eye as a real estate mogul, reality TV star, and finally US president: that he is immensely wealthy and a great businessman, skilled in the art of the deal.
These myths were very publicly deflated after he was found liable for fraud in the case brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In January, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Mr Trump must pay in excess of $464m for grossly inflating his net worth and the value of his assets for more than a decade to obtain favourable conditions on loans.
Mr Trump wants to appeal the ruling but needs to post bond to do so. Therein lies the problem — he doesn’t appear to have the cash, and 30 surety companies were “unwilling” to use his namesake properties as collateral.
The companies said they “will only accept cash or cash equivalents,” such as marketable securities, and typically would “require collateral of approximately 120 per cent of the amount of the judgment”.
That total is nearly $560m – which Mr Trump’s attorneys said in a court filing that he couldn’t come up with. However, Mr Trump has claimed on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he has $500m in cash acquired through “hard work, talent, and luck”.
In reality, he likely is relying on political action committees and the Republican National Committee to pay his mounting legal bills while he campaigns.
Ms James has said that her office is prepared to seize the former president’s assets if necessary to settle the judgment against him. State attorneys have filed the Manhattan court judgment in Westchester, the suburban New York county that is home to Trump National Golf Club and his Seven Springs estate, signalling a first move to do so.
Perhaps understandably, this massive hit to his wealth and image appears to have been getting to the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, currently in the midst of his campaign to return to the White House.
On Sunday, “Don Poorleone” was trending on social media platform X.
In typical fashion, Mr Trump spent the weekend posting about his situation on Truth Social.
