After campaign finance reports released last week showed former President Donald Trump lagging far behind President Joe Biden in February donations and end-of-month cash reserves, the Biden campaign sent an email to supporters titled, “Not a Winning Campaign: Broke Don Hides in Basement.” It read: “Trump can’t raise money, isn’t campaigning, and is letting convicts and conspiracy theorists run his campaign.”
Speaking to supporters in Houston the next day, Biden joked, “I know not everyone’s feeling enthusiasm. The other day a defeated man … came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ I had to say, ‘I’m sorry, Donald. I can’t help you.’”
Biden was gloating over the Trump team’s admission in a court filing that it had been unable to secure an appeal bond of $464 million to satisfy the judgment imposed by New York Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case. The motion asked the court either to pause the exorbitant judgment or reduce the bond to $100 million.
Democrats, of course, were salivating over the prospect of seizing the crown jewels of Trump’s real estate empire after the court-imposed deadline of March 25. They were just days away from realizing their ultimate fantasy: the financial demise of Donald Trump.
But as they say, the devil fools with the best-laid plans. Two unimaginable events occurred to snatch victory from their grasp just when they thought it was theirs.
First, the Appellate Division of New York’s Supreme Court slashed Trump’s bond from over $464 million to $175 million and gave him an extra 10 days to post it. This was a huge win for the beleaguered former president, and it left Democrats and the legacy media reeling.
Second, on Friday, shareholders of social media platform Truth Social voted to take the company public. At the time of the vote, the estimated value of Trump’s 79 million shares in the company was $3.5 billion.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that, with an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion, Trump had joined its list of “the world’s 500 richest people.” And that was before shares of Truth Social began trading on Tuesday morning. The stock opened (on the Nasdaq composite under the ticker symbol DJT) at a price of $78, which brought the value of his shares to more than $6 billion. Although the price fell back to about $70 per share after the opening frenzy, Trump’s stake in the company was still worth more than $5.5 billion.
While it’s true that Trump cannot sell his shares for six months, he may be able to borrow against them.
Needless to say, between the appeal court’s decision to lower the bond requirement and his windfall profit from Truth Social, Trump wasn’t “Broke Don” for long, and the Democrats’ short-lived glee was replaced by a collective sense of indignation.
After years of gaslighting the public about Trump’s “crimes,” they now appear to believe their own spin fully. In their minds, Trump is a criminal who is getting favorable treatment from the powers that be. And they quickly took to X to express their dissatisfaction.
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele posted, “Yet again, @realDonaldTrump gets special treatment with his own private system of justice.”
Liberal author and journalist Steven Beschloss wrote: “The NY appeals court dropping the Trump bond to $175M? One system of justice for him, another for everyone else. Beyond appalling.”
Actress/activist Nancy Lee Grahn had some questions for her liberal comrades: “Anyone else beyond sick of this jackass continually getting special treatment? What American would be allowed to get away with even 5 of the hundreds of egregious actions against this thug?”
And I’ve saved the best for last. Calling the reduction of Trump’s bond “an absolute travesty,” former New York Assistant Attorney General-turned-MSNBC contributor Tristan Snell told colleagues the appeal court judges have “decided [Trump] gets his own private court of justice. He has a private plane. He has private clubs that he lives in. He basically fashioned himself his own private militia to try to take over the Capitol. Now, he’s getting his own private system of justice.
“This is an absolute travesty! It would not happen for anybody else. Anybody else, it would be, ‘Sorry, buddy. You lost. Pay up.’ For him, he gets his own set of rules.”
Some of us are old enough to remember the classic Looney Tunes characters of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. In every episode, Wile E. Coyote has a new idea for how he will finally catch the Roadrunner, but the bird is simply too fast, and the Coyote never succeeds. Most of the time, the plan backfires and leaves the Coyote wounded and angry. But that doesn’t stop him from trying again. In fact, Wile E. Coyote has a lot in common with today’s Democratic Party.
Will the Democrats ever succeed in bringing Trump down? Or will they end up dumbfounded, resembling Wile E. Coyote as he once again slams into a wall, his flattened body sticking there for a moment, before sliding to the ground?
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Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner, Power Line, and AFNN, and she is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation Academy. She is a past contributor to RedState, Newsmax, the Western Journal, and Bongino.com. Her articles have appeared on RealClearPolitics, MSN, the Federalist, and many other sites. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.