Before entering politics in 2015, Donald Trump built his reputation by flaunting his wealth. On television screens, the New York businessman epitomized success. Beyond the towers, casinos and sports complexes bearing his name, it was difficult to assess the real amount of his fortune among the maze of mortgages and loans. This vagueness no longer works in his favor. At 77, running for president for the third time, Trump is now faced with an immediate threat in addition to a possible defeat in November to Joe Biden: empty coffers. With his funds dried up, there is concern about his ability to pay his legal bills as well as to fund an inevitably expensive election campaign, where the two candidates compete against each other through negative messaging.
Is this a bluff to appeal for contributions from his supporters once again or is it genuine hardship? According to his lawyers, Trump was unable to find the sum of $454 million as a guarantee to pay the civil fine he received in February for financial fraud within his real estate empire. Thirty insurance companies were asked to underwrite this guarantee, with interest, should he lose his appeal and not obtain a substantial reduction in the fine. They all refused. On March 8, in a separate civil case, Trump obtained a $91.6 million deposit from the Federal Insurance Company, equivalent to the compensation owed to columnist E. Jean Carroll, judged to be a victim of sexual assault and defamation.
The threat is now closing in on the presidential candidate. He has until March 25 to deposit this considerable sum, or risk seeing Attorney General Letitia James taking action as promised, which could include the seizure of some of Trump's real estate. "I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day," James said, not without malice, in an interview on ABC a few weeks ago, in reference to the building owned by Trump in New York's financial district. Such seizures would require further legal action.
While Trump denounced the scale of the penalty imposed, his lawyers tried to play down the lack of available cash. "No one, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, has $500 million lying around," summed up one of the candidate's advisers, Christopher Kise. Yet in a video deposition in April 2023, Trump had claimed that he had "over $400 million in cash."
The Republican candidate, who has cemented his supporter base by posing as the victim of a judicial conspiracy, wants to forestall the disastrous symbolism of tearing his empire apart, with hasty, loss-making sales. A personal bankruptcy would be catastrophic in an election year. Unless a billionaire benefactor has half a billion to spare, the candidate will have to find a financial solution to provide this guarantee.
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