Donald Trump has managed to screw himself over yet again after he took to his Truth Social platform in the middle of the night and early hours of the morning to openly declare, in all caps, that he’s got $500 million in cash — an amount that slightly exceeds the $460 million bond he needs to cough up for his fraud appeal with a looming Monday deadline —but fails to make mention of any plans to actually pay out what he owes before New York Attorney General Letitia James starts snatching up his assets.
Recent reports have confirmed that the scandal-plagued former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has tried and failed to secure backing for his half-billion-dollar bond from multiple entities in the United States. With Monday’s deadline rapidly approaching and his beloved properties and assets in AG James’ crosshairs, speculations and concerns have quickly begun to swirl about just where, exactly, this money is going to come — with many experts and Americans growing increasingly panicked that Trump’s desperation may soon turn into serious national security threats, as the possibility of him turning to foreign adversaries for financial help grows with each passing moment.
That concern became even more palpable when a Fox anchor recently asked infamous Trump attorney Alina Habba straight to her face whether or not the former president was sniffing around for foreign help and she… didn’t quite say no.
But to hear Trump tell it, he’s already got the cash he needs in hand to pay off the bond — he just wants to use it on his campaign instead — and now his own attorneys are left holding the bag, scrambling to explain away this supposed money after they submitted court filings claiming their client couldn’t pay his bond because he didn’t have near that kind of cash.
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Trump’s attorneys tried to tell CNN reporter Kara Scannell this morning that their client’s claim of having $500 million cash in hand… Wasn’t quite right.
Scannell spoke with CNN host Jim Acosta and said, “His lawyers clarified that statement to me this morning, saying Trump was referring to the cash he has made through running his business, which he has disclosed on his campaign forms. But that’s not the actual amount of cash that he currently has on hand.”
Trump’s glaring boast about his alleged cash came just three short days before the fraud judgment deadline on Monday, as AG James begins preparing to seize some of his New York assets.
The former president’s legal team has been begging and pleading for a stay in the ruling to allow them to appeal without their client being forced to fork up the cash he owes, but James has pointedly argued that there is absolutely no reason that Donald Trump should be allowed to skirt the law.
The appeals court ruling is pending and, as noted by Acosta, “the sand is going through the hourglass.”
Host Acosta eventually turned to CNN commentator and former Trump White House attorney Jim Schultz and questioned, “Trump has repeatedly said that his paying this half-billion-dollar bond would be impossible, but he just posted that he has raised nearly $500 million. Which is it?”
Schultz didn’t mince his words when he said that he would trust Donald’s legal team over Donald himself.
“His lawyers were making the argument that he doesn’t, right?” said Schultz. “So I think that’s the representation that I would probably trust the most as it relates to what he has and what he doesn’t have.”
The former Trump WH attorney then took the opportunity to heavily urge his former client to go the bankruptcy route, calling it Trump’s best option from a legal and financial perspective, albeit not a great look from a political one.
“If he were to file bankruptcy, a lot of this would be stayed,” Schultz explained. “But that might not look so good during a presidential campaign.”
Watch the CNN discussion here:
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
