Trump begs MAGA supporters to save his gilded tower
Donald Trump shamelessly milks his MAGA supporters for money to cover his bills. His fundraising tactics range from hawking gilded sneakers to sending desperate SOS emails.
The subject line — ‘Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower’ — was repeated at the start of the email in bold, italics and all caps, even as the message was clearly intended not for his backers but for New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who brought the case.
Mr. Trump told his supporters that Ms. James’ wants to SEIZE my properties in New York,’ adding, ‘THIS INCLUDES THE ICONIC TRUMP TOWER!’ He then exhorted them to donate money to his presidential campaign as a show of strength against the web of legal troubles he faces, which he has broadly cast as a political witch hunt.
(The New York Times, March 25, 2024)
Mind you, Trump has these supporters convinced he’s “very rich” — boasting a net worth of $10 billion. However, the richer he claims to be, the more eager they are to foot his bills. This speaks volumes about their preening gullibility and misguided aspirations.
Court saves Teflon Don
In Trump’s trial for financial fraud, Judge Arthur F. Engoron found him liable and penalized him $454 million. To appeal that finding and delay having to pay, Trump had to post a bond in that full amount.
As today’s deadline for posting it approached, Trump’s lawyers pleaded with the New York Court of Appeals to overturn Engoron’s finding or reduce his penalty. They argued that this self-professed billionaire didn’t have the cash to post bond. Worse still, they admitted that his credit was so poor that 30 insurance companies refused to underwrite his bond.
In short, this billionaire has no money. And that’s an even greater humiliation than the emperor wearing no clothes.
Indeed, nothing underscored his humiliation quite like right-wing pundits berating Republican billionaires for their failure to bail out Trump. After all, Trump frequently boasts about how his policies made them even richer.
Yet none of these billionaires (not even a group) was willing to bail him out. This is a damning testament to Trump’s character and the respect he commands.
Meanwhile, Trump had effectively milked his MAGA base dry. That’s why every legal expert expected James to get her hands on Trump Tower and other properties.
Then came the appellate court’s eleventh-hour ruling, like a knight in white hood saving the grand wizard.
With Donald J. Trump on the clock to secure a nearly half-billion-dollar bond in his civil fraud case, a New York appeals court appears to have handed the former president a lifeline on Monday, saying it would accept a far smaller bond of $175 million.
The ruling by a five-judge panel of appellate court judges was a crucial and unexpected victory for the former president, potentially staving off a looming financial disaster. Had the court denied his request — and had he failed to obtain the full bond — Mr. Trump risked losing control over his bank accounts and, eventually, even some of his marquee properties.
(The New York Times, March 25, 2024)
Dismayingly, these judges took no notice of Trump boasting only days ago about having over $500 million in cash. And they couldn’t care less that this ruling reinforces Trump’s trademark habit of gaming the justice system — often by delaying proceedings.
What two-tiered justice system?
Folks, this ruling is precisely why Trump is always gaslighting about being a victim of a two-tiered justice system. He has even convinced his followers that he’s the most persecuted man since Jesus Christ.
In fact, Trump is the poster boy for a two-tiered system of justice that has always benefited rich White men like him. Yet he has no compunction about decrying any legal or political loss he suffers as inherently corrupt and unfair.
Unfortunately, this appellate reprieve vindicates Trump’s cynical presumption that the more he plays the victim, the more judges will treat him like he’s above the law. It’s a childish version of playing the refs. But it keeps working for him.
This is also why his MAGA followers hold him in messianic regard. And Jan 6 demonstrated their readiness to “fight like hell” and even die for him. Beware, America.