On Friday, shareholders in a US cashbox company finally approved a merger with Trump Media and Technology Group. At face value, that will give Donald Trump access to shares valued at almost $US3 billion ($4.6 billion).

Not surprisingly, the merger’s clearance has sparked a lot of conjecture that the shares Trump will hold in the expanded Trump Media and Technology group (TMTG) might provide a timely solution to a daunting financial issue.

Trump has to find $US454 million, plus interest that has been accruing at about $US100,000 a day, to meet the fine imposed by the court or risk seizure of his assets.Credit: Bloomberg

Overnight – Monday in the US – Trump faces a deadline imposed by the judge in the case brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Justice Arthur Engoron found Trump had illegally inflated the value of his assets to get loans and insurance on more favourable terms.

He has to find $US454 million, plus interest that has been accruing at about $US100,000 a day, to meet the fine imposed by the court or risk seizure of his assets.

Trump tried to obtain a bond from insurers (reportedly almost 30 of them) that would guarantee payment of the penalty if his appeal against the judgement fails but was knocked back by all the largest. He’s not cash poor – last week he claimed on his Truth Social platform that he had almost $US500 million of cash – but much of that cash is required to support his businesses.

He did previously convince Chubb to provide a bond, secured by $US91.6 million of his assets, to cover the $US83.3 million defamation judgement against him won by E. Jean Carroll, that he is also appealing.

Unless the appeals court rules that he can put up a substantially smaller amount to cover the $US454 million judgement, and does so almost immediately, Trump risks losing some of his most valuable properties, which James could, if she wished, then dump into a market for commercial real estate that has been falling.

Given the complexity of Trump’s affairs, turning his properties – some of which are leasehold and some them leveraged – into cash wouldn’t be straightforward or speedy, as Trump himself has discovered when trying to use them as collateral for a bond.