Donald Trump fails to post bond, admits he’s as broke as we all suspected
When Donald Trump posted a notice of appeal this week in his New York civil fraud verdict, it prompted major news outlets to run headlines and chyrons claiming that Trump had appealed the verdict. But this was highly misleading. If you appeal without posting bond, the the asset seizure process will begin before your appeal is even heard. Trump didn’t post bond alongside his notice of appeal, meaning it wasn’t a real appeal. It also suggested Trump couldn’t afford the bond. Now the other shoe has dropped.
Today Trump asked the court if he could post a bond that’s only a small fraction of the verdict. This won’t fly, and he’ll be denied. So not only is this “appeal” a waste of time on Trump’s part, it also gives away that he’s about as broke as we’ve all suspected. Not only does it mean Trump is short on cash, it also suggests that he’s too upside down on his properties to be able to use them for bond either.
This also puts to rest the silly but popular narrative on social media that Vladimir Putin or some U.S. billionaire was just going to pay Trump’s bond for him. Suffice it to say there are a lot of real world reasons why nothing is that simplistically easy. And we saw that today when Trump failed to post bond while pointlessly begging for leniency instead. There was never going to be a magic carpet ride rescue for Trump in this case, and now we’re seeing that even he knows it.
