Trump Might Be Too Broke for a $175 Million Bond, Too

>Trump Might Be Too Broke for a $175 Million Bond, Too 
>
>Trump Might Be Too Broke for a $175 Million Bond, Too
>And that would be doubly embarrassing for him.
>Trump at a press conference in New York City
>Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
>Trump at a press conference in New York City on Monday
>
>A New York appeals court on Monday reduced the $454 million that former 
>President Donald Trump was required to put up while he appeals his civil 
>fraud case. Now Trump must put up, by April 4, a mere $175 million. The 
>trouble is, he may not get a bond for that amount, either. Should that 
>happen, this act of judicial mercy will end up feeling to Trump like a 
>curse.
>
>The stay deprives Trump of the only argument on which he was gaining any 
>traction at all—that the amount the court required him to put up was 
>excessively high. Four hundred and fifty-four million was indeed an 
>unusually large judgment against a private corporation or individual. (The 
>distinction between Trump and the Trump Organization is paper-thin.) 
>Monday’s appeals court decision doesn’t reduce that judgment, as New York 
>State Attorney General Letitia James pointed out in a written statement. 
>But it does dramatically reduce the amount Trump needs to turn over to the 
>state while he pursues his appeal. It also gives us some hint that the 
>appeals court may reduce Judge Arthur Engoron’s $454 million judgment to, 
>well, $175 million.
>
>Before the stay, Trump was quite literally comparing his financial 
>situation to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In a posting early Monday 
>morning on Truth Social, he quoted this message from a supporter: “It’s 
>ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week 
>they are stealing your property from you.” My own (less blasphemous) view 
>was that, yes, Trump was being singled out for harsh punishment by Judge 
>Engoron, but that this was appropriate because Trump insists on making 
>himself an exception to every rule. When finally matters escalate and 
Trump 
>is called to account, he always whines that he’s being treated worse than 
>others. It’s no more unusual to fine Trump $454 million than it is to send 
>the FBI to collect documents that Trump refused to turn over to the 
>National Archives. Such actions don’t occur in a vacuum. Trump makes them 
>happen.
>
>In a press conference after the stay, Trump continued to attack Engoron 
and 
>James, but he had kind words for the appeals panel. “We were gratified by 
>the professionalism of the opinion today,” Trump said. He also seemed to 
>suggest that he might put up the $175 million in cash. “I have a lot of 
>cash,” he said, and “I don’t need to borrow money.” But Trump hedged his 
>bets in a post on Truth Social, saying, “We will abide by the decision of 
>the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or 
>cash.”
>
>I’ll be very surprised if Trump puts up his own cash, not least because 
the 
>amount may represent as much as half of his liquid holdings. More likely 
>he’ll go back to his bond brokers. I asked Mark Levinson, a bond broker 
>with Brunswick Companies (and my new best friend) about the revised $175 
>million target. “That’s still a very large number,” Levinson said, for a 
>private appeal bond (as opposed to an appeal bond for a publicly traded 
>company). But it’s “probably manageable” for Trump, Levinson said. “I’d be 
>surprised if he didn’t get it.”
>
>But Levinson presumes a degree of rationality in Trump that may not exist. 
>Trump may or may not have $175 million in securities above and beyond the 
>$91 million in a Schwab brokerage account that he reportedly used to 
>collateralize a bond backed by Chubb in the E. Jean Carroll case. We know 
>Trump has a lot of equity in Truth Social, which he just took public, but 
>he’s barred for six months from using that as collateral. And even if 
Trump 
>possesses additional liquid investments, he’ll be reluctant to put them up 
>as collateral for the same reason that surety firms prefer collateral in 
>the form of cash and securities to collateral in the form of real estate: 
>It’s much easier to grab in the event that Trump loses his appeal. Which, 
>let’s face it, is likelier than not.
>
>What surety firm would step forward to cover a $175 million bond for 
Trump? 
>Levinson told me he thinks it will be Chubb. We know (from Trump’s legal 
>team) that Chubb tried very hard to put together a deal on the $454 
>million, finally giving up because the deal depended on using real estate 
>as collateral. But we also know that Chubb caught a lot of flak for 
>underwriting Trump’s $91 million Carroll bond, and that Chubb’s chief 
>executive, Evan Greenberg, ended up writing a letter to investors and 
>employees explaining why it would lend that much money to a man so very 
>famous for stiffing his creditors. Greenberg’s rationale was not very 
>clear, raising suspicions that he expects some unsavory return from a 
>future President Trump. Does Greenberg want to invite even more inquiries 
>into Chubb’s possible motives?
>
>At the press conference, Trump seemed not to have given up on the idea 
that 
>his real estate holdings could be used as collateral on the $175 million. 
>“Most buildings, I have no debt,” Trump said. “Most clubs, I have no 
debt.” 
>As with many things that Trump says, any relationship these assertions 
bear 
>to the truth would be mere coincidence. Trump also went on about the value 
>of his “brand,” even going so far as to assert that “I became president 
>because of the brand.” Was Trump trying to suggest that the Oval Office 
>might be leveraged to compensate whatever fool lends him $175 million? 
>Possibly so. In the meantime, New York’s appeals court sets Trump up for 
>possible humiliation three days after Easter. Robbed of his crown of 
>thorns, Trump still may not come up with the cash. If that happens, he 
>won’t be the Messiah. Just a deadbeat.
>

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