By Mark Gray
7:00am PDT, Mar 25, 2024
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Donald Trump is having some money issues.
In February 2024, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president to pay $464 million in his New York civil fraud case after he was found liable for overvaluing his real estate holdings for better rates. Now, he's having a hard time finding an insurance company to underwrite his bond.
In a new court filing, the former president's attorneys said Trump has approached 30 underwriters to back the bond, but they all declined. Obtaining a bond for that amount — even for someone who proudly says he's a billionaire — is "a practical impossibility," his lawyers said. As news of Trump's money troubles surfaced, he took to Truth Social to rant about the judgement and the judge.
"Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me. Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before," Trump claimed on March 19. "I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"
Amid his financial problems, several top names took to social media to sound off… and Trump continued to post messages on Truth Social attacking Judge Engoron as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Keep reading to see what he and several famous personalities and politicians are saying…
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"This case goes way past Trump. Trump will be gone one day, this attorney general will be gone one day and this is what you want to tell people around the world? This is how we treat money in America. This is not America." —"Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary via CNN
MORE: The best photos from Trump's civil fraud trial
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"There's a reason why Trump can't secure a loan to post a bond for the 454 million dollar judgment against him for Fraud. Because every bank in the world knows he's a Fraud." —Rob Reiner
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"Trump claims he is a billionaire. But he can't pay a $464 million judgement. That means he is lying. How do I know? Math. #TrumpIsBroke" —Rep. Ted Lieu
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Replying to Rep. Ted Lieu, Mark Cuban wrote, "Ted, you know I'm no supporter of Trump. That's for sure. How anyone can vote for someone who has so many of his executive employees turn on him, and, say he is incompetent is beyond me. But you are wrong on this topic, Ted.
Net worth is completely different than cash in the bank. We were in a zero interest rate environment for a long, long time. So keeping cash in the bank or even money markets was dumb. In fact, searching for yield is what killed small banks last year. Also dumb was keeping interest rates that low for that long. Something Trump demanded more of.
So you can argue that Trump put himself in this situation by making sure that the only way to grow his net worth was non cash investments. You can also argue Trump sucked at growing his net worth which led to him putting himself in this position by lying to banks about his assets. There is only one reason to lie on a loan application – you have to.
On a more macro basis, Ted. Even if rates were along a long term trend line for the past ten years, few people are keeping more than 45 percent of their assets in liquid assets. And as far as the bond companies Trump's assets are mostly interests in commercial real estate and foreign assets. No bond company is loaning against them in this commercial real estate market, if ever."
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"I find it awfully interesting that Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, cannot secure a bond to cover a $454 million judgment against him. This could mean the seizure of any number of his properties as soon as next week. One can imagine how humiliating this is: Trump, the Republican frontrunner, is a man who wears his net worth on his sleeve and whose self-worth is intrinsically tied to money. Trump's money problems appear to be real, and that's not a good sign for him. It wasn't even the only bad news he got today." —Dan Rather
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"Even though I did nothing wrong, a Radical Left New York Judge, a true Trump Hater, Arthur Engoron (Are we allowed to speak about his Unconstitutional Gag Order?), picked a number out of THIN AIR, $355,000,000, plus interest (reminiscent of John Lovitz, 'The Liar,' on SNL when it was good), & wants me to bond it, which is not possible for bonding companies to do in such a high amount, before I can even Appeal. That is CRAZY! If I sold assets, and then won the Appeal, the assets would be forever gone. Also, putting up money before an Appeal is VERY EXPENSIVE. When I win the Appeal, all of that money is gone, and I would have done nothing wrong. The Crooked Judge, who has already been overturned 4 times on this case (a record!), fully understands this. He gave us a demand which he knows is impossible to do. This Witch Hunt, between a bad Judge and a Corrupt & Racist Attorney General, is horrible for New York. Businesses are FLEEING, while Violent Crime flourishes. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" –Donald Trump on Truth Social on March 21
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"BREAKING: Let's just call this what it is: Trump doesn't have the money he's always claimed to have, and cannot pay his bills." —Keith Olbermann
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"No one should doubt that the corruption in the New York courts which is seeking to bankrupt President Trump is a direct threat to all of us. If the corrupt Democrats can seek to destroy the front running candidate for president, think what they can do with you. Until New York is returned to honest government no one should do business there without insurance for judicial corruption." —Newt Gingrich
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"Multiple indictments and half a billion dollars in civil liability later, pretty much the only person who can say they were better off four years ago is Donald Trump." —Hillary Clinton
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"Arthur Engoron is a Rogue Judge who was intimidated by the big, nasty, and ugly mouth of Leticia James, considered by many to be the WORST Attorney General in the U.S. She is a Low IQ individual who campaigned for Governor, using my name, and got TROUNCED. She and her PUPPET Engoron, who valued Mar-a-Lago at $18,000,000 when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount, have destroyed all business prospects for New York State, that is already dying, or dead. But have no fear —When I become the 47th President, we will MAKE NEW YORK GREAT AGAIN!" —Donald Trump on Truth Social on March 22
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"Is it just a coincidence that Donald Trump took over the RNC, fired most of its Republican staff, and installed his daughter-law as co-chair at the same time he's become desperate for money and can't post bond? Donors better beware." —Former Rep. Liz Cheney
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"I think that rather than lose Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster, those top three for sure, he would declare bankruptcy … he's done it [six times] before," former Trump White House press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told CNN.
"He will lean into it. Personally, privately, will he like it? No, he'll hate it. But he'll lean into it and say this is what I was forced to do, this is because of the left wing, this is because of the New York liberals, they're doing this to me, this is just a business move to protect myself — I can hear it now. He won't like it personally but I could absolutely see him [filing for bankruptcy to delay things]. … Anything to stall it and anything to keep those properties, he'll do."
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"It tells you he's not nearly as rich as he's sold himself to the American people," Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen told MSNBC. Of Trump's cash crunch, he said, "It leaves a presidential candidate basically owing a foreign entity, all at the expense of America's national security. This is no joke. This places our national security in jeopardy."
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"[These banks] don't trust him and they don't believe that he'll pay them back. The other part of it is that Donald Trump has for so many years run a scheme and he's built his business on deceit and a house of cards and as we can see that house of cards is now going to collapse," Omarosa Manigault Newman — who served as assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison during the Trump administration — told CNN.
"If Donald Trump had the money, he would not be asking for special favors from the judge… He's asked to be treated differently than others… But in this case, he's going to have to pay or he just will have his property seized and that is his worst nightmare… The curtain is going to be pulled back. His supporters are going to see that what Donald Trump says about his wealth and about the money that he has, he simply does not have it."
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"Lemme get this straight… Trump bought Maralago [sic] for 10 Million… he now says it's worth AT LEAST 1.2 Billion dollars. So.. if he needs money.. why doesn't he just take out a $500,000,000 home equity loan on it and even if he loses the appeal he'd still make $700,000,000 if he had to sell it. Or.. is he just a blazingly full of s***, p**** grabbing, 2nd generation rich kid?" —Hal Sparks
