'Humorous': Trump's biographer says ex-president's new plan to play the victim won't work
March 21, 2024
Donald Trump has until Monday to figure out his money woes after being issued a hefty fine for fraud in New York. Some have compared it to a game of chicken, with New York Attorney General Letitia James on one side and Trump's real estate empire on the other.
"I think we should get kind of clear on the various time frames here, because it's not like he can just push a bankruptcy button," said Trump biographer Tim O'Brien. "Or you just sell some assets. If there's an extension of the time frame, if the appellate court intervenes beyond the petitions. I imagine that Tish James is ready to do this at dawn on Monday morning if she needs to.
"The other thing, ... if he wants to put this through the bankruptcy court, he'll have to petition the court," O'Brien explained. "Those are often dense filings. He would have had to set that in motion, I would think, if he's going to do that. Maybe he has, but we have seen no indication that he has."
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Something O'Brien said he finds "humorous" was included in the Washington Post report about Trump trying to decide whether it's better to file for bankruptcy or have James seize his assets. The report suggested Trump thought if he had his assets seized he could paint it as part of the liberals coming after him.
"In all of this is this idea he would want her to seize the assets because thereby he could own the libs, this idea that they would put a chain around Trump Tower or somebody would pick up 40 Wall Street and stick in Tish's pockets. It will be digital transactions. There won't be the kind of public drama he thrives on to show that he's being persecuted as he did in the courtroom. Which is why he showed up in the courtroom."
Former Republican lawmaker David Jolly said that Trump's followers would believe whatever he says, so he shouldn't be all that concerned about bankruptcy.
"The reality is bankruptcy is really the best option for Donald Trump and gives him the best ability to really delay actual consequences, which is his complete strategy," said Jolly. "Because, otherwise Donald Trump is in a situation, but so is the nation, Alicia, where sometime in the next week, someone's likely going to own Donald Trump."
That has been part of the conversation among legal experts and those self-exiled from the Trump world. Trump's lawyer Alina Habba wouldn't tell Fox whether they were going to secure cash from the Saudis or Russia, despite the national security risk.
Speaking to the Post, O'Brien said, "Trump's worst nightmare from a personal and financial situation, that's what you called this case, and you think we can expect him to get angrier and more aggressive."
MSNBC host Alicia Menendez asked O'Brien about the dangers of Trump being "owned," and he said that, realistically, Trump was already owned in his first term. He cited congressional investigations that turned over "I think $70 million or so from foreign entities."
"He was trying to do a deal in Moscow when he was running for president," O'Brien continued. "That would explain why he was trying to court Vladimir Putin so closely. It's always about dollar signs in his eyes. The difference between, I think, his first tour through the Oval Office and a potential new tour is that he's under much more financial duress, and he's clearly scrambling to try to find a solution to this current financial problem, and that makes him a mark for any foreign entity that wants to have influence in the White House, and they can get it pretty cheaply."
See the conversation in the video below or click here.
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