As Always, The Transactional Trump Is For Sale
Yesterday, Trump installed her daughter-in-law, Eric’s wife Lara, as co-chair of the RNC. Her sole qualification is her willingness to use RNC cash— meant to build the party and elect officials on every level— to pay Señor T’s mounting legal bills. On Sunday he met with one of the world’s richest crooks— no, not Putin, but close— to plead for money. Whether Musk will fork over some or not is something we’ll have to see. I suspect he’ll make a significant contribution to the RNC with the understanding that Lara will take care of the rest.
Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Ryan Mac reported that “Trump and his team are working to find additional major donors to shore up his finances as he heads into an expected general election against President Biden. Trump has praised Musk to allies and hopes to have a one-on-one meeting with the billionaire soon, according to a person who has discussed the matter with Trump. It’s not yet clear whether Musk plans to spend any of his [$200 billion] fortune on Trump’s behalf. But his recent social media posts suggest he thinks it’s essential that Biden be defeated in November— and people who have spoken to Musk privately confirmed that is indeed his view.”
The last time Musk endorsed a candidate, Jeremy Sylestine for Austin DA, on Tuesday, the candidate was crushed 2-1, at least in part because of the negative reaction by voters to Musk’s support.
A person close to Musk said his relationship with the government had historically made him wary about identifying too closely with one political party over the other. In 2017, the billionaire famously stepped away from two business advisory councils when Trump was president over Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.
“Climate change is real,” Musk posted on Twitter in June 2017. “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
The two have had other moments of friction. A few months before the midterm elections, in the summer of 2022, he and the former president traded insults, with Trump calling him an expletive and Musk saying it was time for the former president to “sail into the sunset.”
At the same time, however, Musk was becoming more open about his preference for the Republican Party.
On the eve of the midterms, he told his more than 100 million followers on Twitter that they should vote for a Republican Congress. He has railed against what he describes as the left’s “woke” agenda and has attacked Biden over the record number of migrants who have entered the United States during his presidency.
Trump isn’t necessarily interested in Musk for campaign cash. He wants him to help get him off the hook for the half billion dollars he owes so far in his court cases. With the Supreme Court clearly indicating they will not allow Trump to be held accountable on the federal level, the New York State fines appear to be the only accountability— outside of general election balloting— he’ll ever have to face. Yesterday, he posted a $91.6 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation cases, “staving off a potential legal and financial disaster just days before a deadline to secure the deal. The bond, provided by an outside insurance company, will prevent Carroll from collecting the judgment while Trump appeals.”
The reason he had to post a $91.6 million bond when the judgment was for $83.3 million is because the interest mounts daily. Had he not paid before Monday, Trump Tower may have been renamed E. Jean Carroll Tower. The bond obligates Chubb “to cover Trump’s judgment if he loses his appeal and fails to pay. In exchange, Trump must pay the company a fee and pledge collateral, including as much cash as possible.
In a separate civil case, Trump faces a judgment of more than $450 million levied by a New York State judge in a fraud lawsuit brought by Attorney General Letitia James. The judge, Arthur Engoron, sided with James, concluding that Trump had fraudulently inflated his net worth to reap favorable loan terms and other financial benefits.
Trump recently asked a state appeals court to accept only a $100 million bond in that case. His lawyers said it would be “impossible” to obtain a bond for the full amount, which is $454 million and counting with interest.
A single appeals court judge turned down his request, but Trump can try again next month before a full panel of five appellate court judges.
Unless that panel cuts him a break, Trump will need to post a bond for the full amount by March 25— which happens to be the opening day of his first criminal trial. If he fails, James is expected to move swiftly to collect, seizing the former president’s bank accounts and potentially even some of his New York properties.
Although Trump estimates his net worth in the billions, much of it stems from the value of his properties. He has more than $350 million in cash and investments he can sell in a hurry, a recent New York Times analysis found, well short of what he owes between the fraud case and the defamation verdict.
CNN’s Kara Scannell reported, also yesterday that the half billion “cash crunch challenges Trump’s long-projected image of a successful businessman with deep pockets and a maverick’s ability to outmaneuver legal and financial troubles. He rode that reputation to the White House in 2016… Until the bond is posted, interest accrues at a rate of nearly $115,000 per day post judgment.”
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