According to the New York Times reporter who received Donald Trump's tax returns anonymously during the 2016 presidential election, the former president has already been discreetly liquidating his real estate portfolio long before he was slammed with almost $500 million in legal fines.
Speaking with hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend," investigative reporter Suzanne Craig claimed it appears the former president has been "stockpiling" cash, although it is unclear how much he has on hand.
Noting the $450 million financial fraud judgement handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron on Friday, in addition to $83 million due to E. Jean Carroll, Craig explained Trump has few options besides dipping into his own cash reserves since most banks are off-limits.
"He won't be able to go to banks and get a loan," she explained. "While he was president, and since he left office, I think a lot of people, when they think of Donald Trump's banking relationships, think of Deutsche Bank which has done so much with him. What a lot of people don't know is that in recent years, Deutsche Bank has exited the scene."
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"In fact, another thing that was not noticed, I think during his presidency there was so much going on, is just that Donald Trump has been shrinking his financial holdings. He sold, you know well-known, the old post office hotel that he had the operating lease to in Washington."
"He sold the operating lease to a golf course he had in New York," she elaborated. "He is also been quietly selling condominiums around New York and buildings he owned. He sold a house he owned in L.A. He has been, I don't know, stockpiling the cash he has been selling down, we don't know how much cash he has on hand. He said last year, close to 400 million."
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"I'm always careful when I talk about that cash on hand," she cautioned. "It could be 200, 300 [million], the next day, it could be zero, if he has to make a payment on something. We really don't have a lot of visibility in this cash position, but we know he has been selling assets that should have raised cash."
"Now he's selling sneakers, he may have a little more cash than he did," she then quipped.
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