Trump

 

What Trump is promising supporters he’d do in a second term

Thom Hartmann -  Trump was fined $364 million in his second major fraud conviction. You’d think that people would have figured out that Trump was a lying, cheating fraud when his so-called “Trump University” (which wasn’t a university and wasn’t a licensed school of any sort: just a giant scam) was busted and he had to put up $25 million to make his victims whole. Now the State of New York has found he committed fraud in another big way, lying about the value of his properties to get cheaper insurance, better loan rates, and lower taxes. Most interesting, the judge, Arthur Engeron, determined that Trump is such a serial fraudster that he isn’t allowed to run a real estate business in that state for at least 3 years. Voters should take notice: if the guy is such a criminal the State of New York won’t let him run a business, do you really think he’s competent or honest enough to run a country? Don’t forget, he screwed up the nation’s response to Covid so badly than a half-million Americans died unnecessarily (we had the highest death rate in the world), five of his cabinet officers were referred to the DOJ for criminal indictment, and he’s already done serious damage to NATO and the prospects for peace in the world. This guy is a serial criminal who never should have gotten anywhere near the White House. 

Occupy Democrats - In addition to the historically massive fine, Trump will be banned from borrowing money from any bank in New York for three years. This will make it difficult for him to raise money to appeal the judgement, which in turn might force him to sell off one of his beloved buildings or golf courses. He will also be banned for three years from serving in any top roles at any New York companies, including his own. The New York Times reports that an independent monitor will serve as "court's eyes and ears at the Trump Organization" and watch out for fraud or other suspicious behavior

Guardian -  In a matter of weeks, Donald Trump was hit with two giant penalties from two civil trials in New York – $83m for defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll and $354.9m for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements.The verdicts combined will cost him some $438m, and that’s only part of what Trump could owe across numerous lawsuits. The payments will probably create a sizable dent in his wallet. Bloomberg’s billionaires’ list estimated that Trump’s net worth in 2021 was about $2.3bn, meaning these two rulings alone could take out almost a fifth of Trump’s net worth...Trump’s finances have been notoriously opaque, not least because the Trump Organization is a private business, meaning it does not have to file public financial reports. But here’s what we know about what Trump has to pay and how it will affect his finances.While $438m is no small sum, Trump is wealthy. Trump ally Rudy Giuliani declared bankruptcy after a jury ordered him to pay $148m to two Georgia election workers; the former New York mayor has declared he owes between $100m and $500m and has assets of between $1m and $10m.To declare bankruptcy, Trump would have to prove that the verdict outweighs his assets, something that is highly unlikely. During a deposition with prosecutors for the fraud trial in April 2023, Trump said that he had more than $400m in cash. However, last year, Forbes reported that Trump had since invested the bulk of his cash in bonds and treasuries, with a small portion kept in stocks and mutual funds. After his guilty verdicts, Trump will probably have to sell a good chunk of those investments.