Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/31/looming-fire-sale-may-end-trumps-billionaire-fantasy.html
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parallel scenes over tea service at the kremlin, saudi royal palaces, north korea and other evil castles: “So ‘our friend’ will be notably broke soon. This is good. This will make him even more manageable to our interests. We must increase agitprop yet further.” [evil chuckles abound]
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Here’s hoping. He was always shown to be a fraud, but he’s been able to weasel his way out and leave other people paying his debts (which is why his fans think he’s a genius). I really hope this is the end of the road where he finally pays some of what he owes
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start selling off parts of his real estate “empire.”
Unreal estate, more like! 
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Right now, his handlers in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang are laughing their asses off, and probably taking bets as to which of their countries he will attempt to flee to rather than pay up and go to prison.
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In the most recent “Prosecuting Donald Trump” podcast, Andrew Weissman and Mary McCord said that he has to put up the money so that it can be held while he appeals. That’s so he can’t stow it somewhere offshore. So, he’s already either written a $5M check and will have to write another for $86M (in the E Jean Carrol case) or has found a sucker to post a bond for him.
I’m at work, so can’t post the episode link because firewall. Why I can’t get to NBC but can get to BB is beyond me. 
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“How much for this shitty looking golf course overlooking the East River?”
“Five. . . . BILLION dollars!”
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you’ve got the “lame stream media/just plain lame” filter on, try to get your admin to fix…
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Pricemaster FTW!
merkin von bankrupt FT FAIL!
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The $65 million in punitive damages to E. Jean Carroll was based on his claimed net worth; if his actual worth is significantly less than that, it may be another instance of his “I’m richer than anybody!” posturing coming back to bite him in the ass.
The thing that puzzles me is that if Trump really is very much less wealthy than he claims to be, where has all the money gone? Granted, he seems to be a fairly shitty businessman, so it’s not unlikely that many of his ventures ran at a loss. Still, he had four years in which he was able to virtually coin money by (a) demanding huge sums from anyone who wanted to kiss his ring at Mar-a-Lago, (b) skimming off funds from his PACs, (c) diverting government funds to his busineses, (d) assorted other grifts, and (e) everything else. He shouldn’t be hurting for money.
Is he struggling to pay back old loans to Kremlin-adjacent oligarchs or the Mob? Or is it just that everything he earns is flowing into offshore accounts and so doesn’t figure on the official balance sheet?
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I could see him trying to use this as just another grift-- make some secret deal for foreign interests to buy his properties at auction for inflated prices, like if the Saudis wanted him to be in the White House again they could buy some estate or country club for ten times what it’s reasonably worth using a shill bidder, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, we scratch your back, etc.
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That seems like the most likely scenario.
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While we have seen plenty of retail grifts intended to put government money into his pocket (eg. charging the secret service top dollar for rooms at Mar a Lago) we have yet to see the sort of giant, defense contractor sized frauds on the public that would be large compared to his claimed net worth. They may still be hidden, but considering his brazenness and lack of subtlety, I’m not convinced. One of the things that makes people believe that he is worth far less than he claims is the fact that no grift is too small. Eg. paying cub scout fees out of a charity fund. Truly wealthy people usually don’t spend time searching for change under the couch cushions.
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Thank god he’s so dumb it never occurred to him he could make money by starting wars.
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I’m a little surprised that none of his military-industrial friends suggested it to him.
There was a Russian saying that “The most powerful man in Russia is the man who last spoke with the Tsar” and some of Trump’s policies did seem to vary depending on who’d had access to him most recently. It wouldn’t have taken much for some hawk with a deep defense industry portfolio to explain to him that what Montenegro (for instance) was doing right now was unacceptable and that they needed to be bombed immediately.
It might not even have been a hard sell. There was a story going around that the Pentagon put “Fire a couple of missiles” in the menu of options for dealing with Qasim Soleimani more or less for shits and giggles because no one would be crazy enough to do that, and they were honestly horrified when Trump said “Yeah, let’s do that one.” I guess they sure learned their lesson that day.
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I suppose that nobody in the Pentagon had heard of Poe’s law.
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$48 million loan between Trump and one of his companies, “may reflect a lack of adequate internal controls,”
This is the WSJ understating the significance here. This is evidence of criminal tax fraud. There may be more criminal charges coming towards Trump and/or Trump Corporation coming from this examination.
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They tend to make more money off the threat of war than its eventuality. Arms races are more profitable than wars. Wars tend to expose the deficiencies in vaunted equipment which affect global marketing. Wars also limit who they can sell to.
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So, if someone put up a bond and he tries to weasel out, does that mean they get to send some hard dudes with names like “Rat” and “T-bone” to drag him back to court by the ear, or is that only for bail bonds?
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