How Trump narrowly escaped a cash crunch
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports,” Jonathan O’Connell breaks down Donald Trump’s complicated finances — and what we know about the California billionaire who covered Trump’s bond in New York.
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Former president Donald Trump was in a financial bind last month. He had to post a bond of nearly half a billion dollars to cover a civil fraud judgment in New York, or risk the state seizing his assets.
Then Don Hankey stepped in.
The California billionaire offered to cover Trump’s bond for a “modest fee” — and a court reduced the amount to $175 million while Trump appeals the case.
But this story, along with Trump’s other complicated financial problems, raises questions about what happens if he is reelected, and what kind of influence someone like Hankey could have over Trump.
Today on “Post Reports,” we talk through what we know about Trump’s money, and how his stake in Truth Social could change his fortunes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jonathan, if you had to sum up in a word the experience of covering Donald |
| 0:06.7 | Trump's financial situation right now, how would you put it? I would say |
| 0:10.8 | roller coaster. At stake, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and the Trump organization's ability to do business in New York. |
| 0:20.0 | Let me tell you that shares in Donald Trump's social media company have soared. |
| 0:24.8 | It's a rough ride on Wall Street for Donald Trump. |
| 0:27.8 | His truth social stock has plummeted. |
| 0:30.3 | Ups and downs and maybe now we're somewhere in between. |
| 0:35.0 | Do you like Amuse and Park? |
| 0:37.0 | I go to them. I don't usually ride the roller coasters though I'll say. |
| 0:40.0 | Just at work, Just at work. This is Jonathan O'Connell. |
| 0:46.0 | He's an investigative reporter for the Post and he covers Trump's businesses and finances. |
| 0:52.0 | Recently, that has meant reporting on a serious |
| 0:55.0 | cash crunch for Trump because of a penalty he was ordered to pay by a judge in New |
| 0:59.7 | York for committing fraud. And if you add the interest that as part of that penalty, it's a penalty of over 450 million dollars. |
| 1:06.8 | A lot of money. |
| 1:07.8 | Yes, and they gave them 30 days to pay it. |
| 1:10.3 | Not a lot of time. |
| 1:11.3 | Exactly. |
| 1:12.3 | And no matter how rich you are, coming up with that much money that quickly is going to be difficult. |
| 1:17.0 | Nobody just has their money just like sitting around under the mattress ready to distribute any point. |
| 1:22.0 | In particular, his is in real estate which you cannot |
| 1:24.1 | really sell him 30 days you can't sell a golf course in 30 days much less like 10 |
... |
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