Former President Donald Trump will have to pay up in his civil suit cases without relying on other people or procedural tricks to bail him out, Philip Bump for the Washington Post wrote Tuesday.
Trump was held liable for $83.3 million for defamation in the E. Jean Carroll litigation, and for more than $450 million, including interest, in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump's supporters are trying to help him with these through a GoFundMe organized by one Elena Cardone, noted Bump, and they've got $1.2 million so far. However, "The interest alone demonstrates the problem. Cardone’s fundraiser began more than a week ago, during which time more than $1 million in interest has been added to what Trump owes. The GoFundMe is ostensibly aimed at raising the $355 million sum imposed by Engoron but in reality has barely raised enough to cover that interest. And, as you might expect, contributions have slowed from its initial burst: The fund has added less than $100,000 in the past two days, from Sunday to Tuesday."
That is not going to help him given he needs to produce the bond in 30 days; "even if he could persuade supporters to give him money, he doesn’t have two years to do so," Bump wrote.
It's unclear how else Trump could get the money. In the past he relied on the Republican National Committee to pay some of his bills, but there is not broad-based support among leadership to do this. Some commentators have floated the idea he could use the value of his shares from the proposed merger deal involving his Truth Social platform, but legal experts have broadly said this isn't a viable option.
"It’s not clear what he’s going to do or even what options he has at his disposal. It’s also not clear what happens if the appeal is rejected and Trump loses that half-billion dollars for good," concluded Bump. "Trump has fared very well over the past five-plus decades in getting people to give him money. He’s done particularly well when attempting to do so in the context of politics. But this amount, on this timeline? It’s an entirely new realm and one that, unusually of late, will require that he be on the hook personally."
