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The Biden campaign can be excused for a bit of chest-thumping. “If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on ‘The Apprentice,’” communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement, “he’d fire himself.”
At the moment, of course, campaign cash might be the least of Trump’s money concerns. His lawyers told a New York court this week that the former president has been unable to secure a bond that would give him time to appeal a $454 million judgment against him and his company for fraud.
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Trump approached more than 30 companies about underwriting the bond, his lawyers said, but all refused to accept real estate as collateral — and real estate is the source of most of Trump’s wealth. The insurance firm Chubb did underwrite a $91 million bond for Trump to appeal a separate civil judgment (for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll) but decided to steer clear of the fraud case.
New York Attorney General Letitia James could theoretically begin seizing Trump’s assets as soon as next week if he is unable to secure and post a bond. It would surely be galling for Trump to lose his gaudy triplex apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, where he famously descended the escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for president.
Declaring bankruptcy is the one remedy guaranteed to keep the wolf away from Trump’s lavishly gilded door, but he has reportedly ruled it out. That would likely give him years of breathing room on the massive fines, which Trump should know given his past: He has used bankruptcy six times largely to get out from under his foolish and ruinous foray into the casino business in Atlantic City.
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Of course, filing for bankruptcy in the middle of the campaign would threaten Trump’s image as a successful, respected businessman. The Post quoted a source close to Trump as saying: “He’d rather have Letitia James show up with the sheriff at 40 Wall [a Trump office tower] and make a huge stink about it than say he’s bankrupt.”
Trump’s personal cash crunch is relevant because the campaign is helping pay the soaring legal bills that he and his associates — and co-defendants in the criminal cases — are racking up. Trump’s Save America political action committee has spent $8.5 million on legal costs since the beginning of the year. The campaign itself has paid another $1.8 million to lawyers.
So far, the RNC’s position has been that it will not use Republican Party funds to pay Trump’s legal bills. But a resolution that would have made this stance official failed to win enough support to make it to the floor at a recent RNC meeting. Watch as they do, not as they say.
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Donald Trump has always loved to boast about how much money he has — or claims to have. When he announced his presidential run in 2015, he pledged to self-finance his campaign and crowed, “I don’t need anybody’s money.”
He sure needs some now.
President Biden’s reelection campaign reported Wednesday that it has $71 million in cash on hand — more than double the $33.5 million that Trump’s campaign reported having. If you throw in the bank balances of affiliated groups supporting the candidates, Trump’s campaign liquidity rises to $42 million — but Biden’s soars to a stunning $155 million, a ridiculous amount for this point in the cycle.
It makes me wonder about all those stories telling us how unenthusiastic Democrats are about Biden’s reelection. I’m starting to think that maybe — hear me out — we should pay less attention to what people say and more to what they actually do.
The Republican National Committee is in no position to bail the Trump campaign out. It reported raising $10.7 million in February, ending the month with $11.3 million in the bank. But the Democratic National Committee raised $16.6 million in February and was left with $26.6 million in cash on hand. No wonder that Trump sent daughter-in-law Lara Trump over to the RNC to try to improve the balance sheet.
The Biden campaign can be excused for a bit of chest-thumping. “If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on ‘The Apprentice,’” communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement, “he’d fire himself.”
At the moment, of course, campaign cash might be the least of Trump’s money concerns. His lawyers told a New York court this week that the former president has been unable to secure a bond that would give him time to appeal a $454 million judgment against him and his company for fraud.
Trump approached more than 30 companies about underwriting the bond, his lawyers said, but all refused to accept real estate as collateral — and real estate is the source of most of Trump’s wealth. The insurance firm Chubb did underwrite a $91 million bond for Trump to appeal a separate civil judgment (for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll) but decided to steer clear of the fraud case.
New York Attorney General Letitia James could theoretically begin seizing Trump’s assets as soon as next week if he is unable to secure and post a bond. It would surely be galling for Trump to lose his gaudy triplex apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, where he famously descended the escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for president.
Declaring bankruptcy is the one remedy guaranteed to keep the wolf away from Trump’s lavishly gilded door, but he has reportedly ruled it out. That would likely give him years of breathing room on the massive fines, which Trump should know given his past: He has used bankruptcy six times largely to get out from under his foolish and ruinous foray into the casino business in Atlantic City.
Of course, filing for bankruptcy in the middle of the campaign would threaten Trump’s image as a successful, respected businessman. The Post quoted a source close to Trump as saying: “He’d rather have Letitia James show up with the sheriff at 40 Wall [a Trump office tower] and make a huge stink about it than say he’s bankrupt.”
Trump’s personal cash crunch is relevant because the campaign is helping pay the soaring legal bills that he and his associates — and co-defendants in the criminal cases — are racking up. Trump’s Save America political action committee has spent $8.5 million on legal costs since the beginning of the year. The campaign itself has paid another $1.8 million to lawyers.
So far, the RNC’s position has been that it will not use Republican Party funds to pay Trump’s legal bills. But a resolution that would have made this stance official failed to win enough support to make it to the floor at a recent RNC meeting. Watch as they do, not as they say.
Trump is already losing to Biden in a big way
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22.03.2024
Follow this authorEugene Robinson's opinions
FollowThe Biden campaign can be excused for a bit of chest-thumping. “If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on ‘The Apprentice,’” communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement, “he’d fire himself.”
At the moment, of course, campaign cash might be the least of Trump’s money concerns. His lawyers told a New York court this week that the former president has been unable to secure a bond that would give him time to appeal a $454 million judgment against him and his company for fraud.
Advertisement
Trump approached more than 30 companies about underwriting the bond, his lawyers said, but all refused to accept real estate as collateral — and real estate is the source of most of Trump’s wealth. The insurance firm Chubb did underwrite a $91 million bond for Trump to appeal a separate civil judgment (for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll) but decided to steer clear of the fraud case.
New York Attorney General Letitia James could theoretically begin seizing Trump’s assets as soon as next week if he is unable to secure and post a bond. It would surely be galling for Trump to lose his gaudy triplex apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, where he famously descended the escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for president.
Declaring bankruptcy is the one remedy guaranteed to keep the wolf away from Trump’s lavishly gilded door, but he has reportedly ruled it out. That would likely give him years of breathing room on the massive fines, which Trump should know given his past: He has used bankruptcy six times largely to get out from under his foolish and ruinous foray into the casino business in Atlantic City.
Advertisement
Of course, filing for bankruptcy in the........
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