Those hoping for Donald Trump's bankruptcy or the seizure of his real estate will have to wait. A New York appeals court gave Trump a substantial reprieve on Monday, March 25. Instead of having to immediately post a bond of $454 million (€419 million), following his conviction in February for overstating the value of his business assets in order to obtain loans in higher amounts and on advantageous terms, the former president and real estate tycoon has been granted a 10-day delay and will only have to pay $175 million.
Trump immediately welcomed the decision. "We will abide by the decision of the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash. This also shows how ridiculous and outrageous [Judge] Engoron's original decision was at $450 million. I did nothing wrong, and New York should never be put in a position like this again. Businesses are fleeing, violent crime is flourishing," he said. In an email to supporters, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate gloated, "Trump Tower remains mine!" He was thumbing his nose at prosecutor Letitia James, who had indicated her intention to seize the Trump Building on Wall Street if Trump failed to post the bond. "Yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day," she had said.
While this trial has seriously threatened Trump, it has also allowed him to victimize himself. First, James, a Democrat, got elected on an explicitly anti-Trump platform in 2018. "I say one name: Donald Trump. We're going to definitely sue him, we're going to be a real pain in the ass. He's going to know my name personally," she explained in a video at the time. "No one is above the law, including this illegitimate president," James declared at a rally, calling for people to "follow his money" and believing that Trump had "laundered money": "His days are numbered."
Secondly, the trial, conducted by a single judge, Democrat Arthur Engoron, without a jury, was a bit of a foregone conclusion. Engoron had decided before the trial had opened that Trump was guilty of overvaluing his assets. The proceedings showed that Trump had made false estimates of his assets. For example, his New York triplex was reported to have nearly triple the actual floor area (2,700 square meters instead of the real 1,000 square meters), leading to an inflated valuation of $327 million.
But the prosecution also had its share of fantasy. The judge presented a tax services appraisal that estimated the value of Mar-a-Lago, Trump's palatial home in Palm Beach, Florida, to be between $18 million and $27.6 million. According to real estate agents, it is worth several hundred million dollars. The verdict was delivered despite no victim claiming to have been harmed, including Deutsche Bank, which, according to the Trump family, conducted its own valuations.
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