The million-dollar fines imposed on Trump in two civil trials in New York leave the Republican without liquidity |

Every morning, just for getting out of bed, Donald Trump adds $112,000 in interest to the fine that a New York judge imposed on him last week for fraud in his businesses. If the penalty was 355 million dollars, the taximeter has not stopped and today it is already 454 million [unos 418,5 millones de euros] those that must satisfy. Trump himself, the favorite candidate in the Republican primaries and a foreseeable candidate for re-election in the November elections, estimated the amount of his liquidity at around $400 million last year. If previous sanctions are added to the fine, and its interest, such as the 83 million for defaming a columnist, and the large minutes of his defense, the fortune of the magnate, of which he made the flag to make his leap into politics , you run the risk of being left out of money. The Republican appealed the sentence this Monday, which stops the counter and muddies the process.

Such are the difficulties that Trump faces in paying his judicial debts that New York Attorney General Letitia James announced last week that she will seize some of his properties if he does not release the amount in time. The longer it takes to do so, the greater the debt will be. In the sentence of the case for continued fraud – for at least a decade – for inflating the value of some properties to obtain credit advantages, two of his most prized possessions are mentioned: the Trump Tower in New York and the Mar-a-Lago mansion. , his residence since he left the White House (and focus of one of the four criminal charges once morest him: improper retention of classified material). Several golf courses also appear on the list of inflated assets.

If in 2021, following the assault on the Capitol by a horde of his followers – whom he had previously harangued to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory – Trump experienced the shame of seeing how several of his properties removed the letters from his surname of the facade, the blow to his finances is now much less symbolic.

Trump beat Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary this Saturday and his path to the presidential election seems completely clear. But the debt accountant is getting fatter, and not just because of the New York fine. If last year his campaign had to allocate more than $50 million to legal expenses, last Tuesday it was learned, thanks to the presentation of campaign documents to federal regulators, that the PAC (political action committee , the engine of the Republican campaign) paid almost three million dollars to lawyers in January because of his numerous legal problems: among them, the fine of 83 million dollars, imposed in New York, for defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll. Additionally, he owed another $1.9 million in unpaid legal bills as of the end of last month, according to those documents.

The largest outlay of Save America (Save the USA), as the main PAC of the Republican candidate is called – already active since his defeat in 2020 -, went more than half a million to the law firm that represents him in the case of an attempt to reverse the result of the elections. of 2020, one of the most serious accusations of the four once morest him, which add up to 91 criminal charges in total. The two civil cases cited, both in New York, for defaming Carroll and for fraud in his business, do not involve jail time, but they do involve fines that can leave him without liquidity.

Entering the year, the Republican National Committee, which coordinates fundraising and election strategy, had more than $8 million in cash. The Trump campaign, another 33 million. Neither of them has published the totals raised in January, but in any case they lag behind Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s electoral funds: 130 million dollars in the bank, 42 ​​of them received in January. In a country where money is everything, the economic power of a campaign can be decisive, even with polls of voting intention once morest, as is the case with Biden, although the truth is that sitting presidents usually have financial advantage as we enter an election year.

Defense delaying maneuvers

Trump demonstrated this Tuesday in a televised debate how much the fine has accused him of fraud, by comparing himself with the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny to present himself as a martyr of what he has been calling political persecution unleashed by his Democratic rivals with the intention of derailing his electoral options. Political “witch hunt” is the mantra that he invariably repeats following each judicial action once morest him. The fact that prosecutor James, who filed the fraud accusation, and Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who endorsed his first indictment for the case of Stormy Daniels, are democrats, he emphasizes, as he never tires of repeating, that they are persecuting him only for political reasons. With his usual maximalism, Trump said on Tuesday that the fraud fine was “a form of Navalny, a form of communism or fascism” once morest him.

“If you do not have funds to pay the sentence, then we will seek mechanisms for its execution in the courts, and we will ask the judge to seize your assets,” James responded to the Republican’s complaints. “We are going to guarantee that he pays the sentence to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at the [número] 40 on Wall Street every day,” said the prosecutor, referring to the Lower Manhattan property known as the Trump Building, the first potential piece of the embargo and which, apart from the logo of a well-known pharmacy chain, no longer has any Mention to its owner.

In addition to the $400 million in cash he claims to have, the rest of his net worth is invested in golf courses, skyscrapers, residential complexes – like those in New York that ripped off the letters from his last name in 2021 – and other properties, along with investments and participations. To delay the hypothetical embargo – and also clear the path to the November elections of lawsuits – his lawyers repeatedly resort to dilatory maneuvers (in the case of the fine for civil fraud, the appeal presented this Monday).

Lara Trump, the cashier daughter-in-law of the Republican National Committee

Donald Trump has proposed his daughter-in-law Lara, the wife of his son Eric, for the new leadership of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Although it is not yet official, the chosen one’s plans have already generated discomfort and concern over the possibility that the party’s coffers will be depleted by the candidate’s legal expenses. In other words, what worries the party apparatus is that Lara Trump, once a television presenter and now a campaign organizer, is dipping her toes to pay the fees for her father-in-law’s lawyers. “There is a lot of concern among donors, state parties and campaigns that Trump’s mounting legal bills will take up significant funds and nothing can be done regarding it,” said former RNC communications director Doug Heye, quoted by the information portal known.

Since she was proposed by Donald Trump for the position – along with the president of the party in the State of North Carolina -, Lara Trump has stated that paying her father-in-law’s legal bills is of “great interest” to Republican voters. She also said “every penny” of the RNC would go toward ensuring Trump’s re-election and control of Congress.

The RNC recorded the worst fundraising figures since 2013 last year and starts this election year far behind the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The party delegations in pivotal states – those that can swing the outcome of the elections towards one candidate or another – deal with debts and legal problems due to the false voter schemes of 2020. So the Republican apparatus can turn once morest Trump . “He’s trying to hijack the RNC before he’s even nominated.” [candidato a las elecciones]. And it’s because he’s broke,” the former South Carolina party president told the aforementioned portal. “He’s already spent millions of PAC money and it’s running out. So he needs another place to raise money to pay his personal legal bills.”

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