BLOWHARD TRUMP’S $464M CASH CRUNCH
Struggling to put money where his big mouth is
BRAGGART Donald Trump has brazenly bloviated he’s worth “eight or nine billion dollars,” but the former president ended up with egg on his face when more than 30 financial institutions refused to underwrite a $464 million legal bond!
In a blockbuster legal motion, the real estate baron’s own lawyers confessed the 77-yearold isn’t rich enough to cough up $454 million in cash — plus another $10 million in interest — to appeal a civil judgment imposed by New York Judge Arthur Engoron for decades of committing massive business fraud.
The bond would keep the Empire State’s Attorney General Letitia James from carving up the family empire — and selling off properties such as New York City’s Trump Tower — to satisfy the devastating judgment.
The Donald’s stunning lack of cash has a Beltway insider sputtering, “Something isn’t adding up here. He says he’s a billionaire but when push comes to shove, he struggles to find the money to stop the destruction of mostly everything he’s ever created. It’s a farce!”
Other insiders are branding him a bogus billionaire — and questioning if ANY estimates of his worth are legit!
In February, Trump was socked by Engoron with an unprecedented $355 million fine — plus $98.6 million in back interest — after the judge found the Republican presidential nominee inflated the value of his assets to nab better rates on loans and insurance — and reduced them to cut his taxes.
Sources say Trump would have to come up with at least 120 percent of the judgment, or $544 million, to obtain a bond that would allow him to appeal without facing enforcement.
Trump’s lawyers estimate his exposure at closer to $1 billion and argue he should be permitted to post bond closer to $100 million.
Legal papers also note 30 surety companies denied the former president’s desperate pleas for bond money.
Trump is also smarting from being forced to post a $91.6 million bond in March for a defamation judgment against him by writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s in a Manhattan department store. He still denies the charges despite a civil jury finding him liable for molesting the writer.
Trump also owes a whopping $83 million in various legal costs including $77 million to fight four criminal indictments — two accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Insiders say Trump’s failure to raise bond is “no surprise” given his lousy track record for paying back creditors.
The blowhard declared corporate bankruptcy an incredible six times since 1991, back to when he couldn’t pay the loan interest on his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City and was forced to sell his plane and 220-foot yacht.
“Trump’s a crummy financial risk,” says one source. “His long history of stiffing his creditors is finally coming back to haunt him.”
Last year, Trump’s net worth was pegged at $2.6 billion despite being booted from Forbes’ list of the richest 400 Americans. He claimed under oath in a deposition that
he had “substantially in excess of $400 million” in cash.
But sources point to clues the mega-developer is now suffering a cash crunch.
He was accused of misappropriating more than $50 million in political donations last year to finance his various legal defenses and has resorted to a series of schemes to quickly raise money, including selling $399 gold-painted sneakers and superhero non-fungible tokens.
Meanwhile, sources say the former prez is collapsing emotionally as he watches James destroy his empire.
“He’s irate,” says a Mar-aLago insider. “He screams at people over the smallest of matters and keeps railing about how the Democrats won’t have the last laugh. He’s an angry mess!”
Political experts say if the Trump Tower marquee is removed from the mogul’s signature Midtown Manhattan building, it could derail his current run for the White House.
“That’s a powerful symbol,” says one source. “Democrats will say it’s proof he’s a fraud and a huckster with way less money than he’s claimed.
“That’s huge because much of his brand is based on being this super-businessman who can solve all of America’s problems.”