A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay a penalty of $355 million for fraudulently inflating his wealth, totaling over $450 million with interest.
Trump’s legal team requested a delay and offered to post a bond of $100 million instead.
“In the absence of a stay on the terms herein outlined, properties would likely need to be sold to raise capital under exigent circumstances,” the filing states, “and there would be no way to recover any property sold following a successful appeal and no means to recover the resulting financial losses from the Attorney General.”
Despite claims of having substantial cash, Trump’s team argues that producing the full amount is impractical.
An appeals judge ruled that Trump must post the full amount but can obtain loans.
“Developers usually don’t have cash. They have assets, not cash,” Trump said. “We have, I believe, 400 plus and going up very substantially every month.”
“I have over 400 — fairly substantially over $400 million in cash. That’s just cash. That’s just cash,” he later added.
Speculation exists about Trump’s ability to pay, given his inflated wealth and potential financial constraints.
Trump’s lawyers suggested he may not have enough liquid assets to meet the judgment.
“No one, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, has 500 million laying around,” Trump lawyer Christopher Kise stated.
“Unfortunately, they picked the wrong guy to pick on, in my opinion, because he’s strong, he’s resilient, and he happens to have a lot of cash,” attorney Alina Habba said.
“I mean he does — of course he has money,” Habba said. “I mean, he’s a billionaire.”
