It was a bad week in court for the former US president. He and his sons and company were fined a massive amount of money and onerous restraining conditions for business fraud. His legal troubles are adding to what could prove to be the most divisive elections in American history
By Kenneth Tiven
The penalty that Donald Trump has been ordered to pay is $364 million. This is huge, even for a man who claims to be a billionaire. It includes a bruising critical and literate ruling from presiding judge Arthur Engoron who presided over the bench trial because neither side asked for a jury. He ruled that Trump owes interest on about half of the total penalty amount as calculated from the start of the investigation in 2019. Interest on the more recent fraudulent transactions can be calculated starting in May 2022 or June 2023.
Calculations are it will be $450 million in total. This must be paid now in cash or by posting a bond. This is required to allow an appeal. As grim as this sounds, the impact on his ego is likely enormous because he’s banned for two years from working as a New York State business executive. Sons Don Jr. and Eric are banned for three years. Daughter Ivanka was not included in this case, leaving her as the only family member who officially can run the Trump Organization.
Few verdicts could impact his carefully cultivated reputation as a business savant more than this one. The judge wrote: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”
Trump has said multiple times that he loathes people who lose, reflected in his reputation for dishonestly filling in his golf scorecard to avoid losing. His displeasure with the case was evident as he was rude to the judge, both on the witness stand and in remarks to journalists. State law doesn’t require juries in this type of lawsuit, which sought what is known as “equitable relief” and has different rules than other cases with big-money penalties. What happens to Trump’s real estate business is unclear at this time. “He views these judgments as a kind of existential threat to his entire brand,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump-biographer-turned critic. “It will wear at him psychologically.”
Multiple state and federal court cases await, all conflicting with his election campaign desires. A $89 million penalty in a civil suit is already owed to E Jean Carroll for defamation. The past few weeks in US political life have felt like a “Turning Point.” Not so much in the MAGA circles. The New York Post, a Murdoch-owned and virulently right-wing newspaper, simply ignored it in the hours after the verdict was released. Its website focused instead on issues with the Georgia state case charging Trump and 17 others for racketeering in trying to cancel Biden’s victory in that state in 2020.
Additionally, the political murder of Alexei Navalny conflicted with Trump’s obvious affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was an embarrassment for Republicans because Putin sent his opponent to die at a notoriously harsh prison inside the Arctic Circle. World reaction treated it as a murder, but it took Trump two full days to acknowledge Navalny’s death. He avoided mentioning Putin while offering a nonsensical social media post that blamed no one and offered no condolences.
President Biden minced no words in the onslaught of sympathy, anger and recrimination from world leaders. “Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world.” Reputational hits will cost a few voters, but encourage the deeply faithful to contribute more money to his campaign. However, the damage to the Trump brand representing luxury and lifestyle is probably a long-term problem. The emotional damage is that won’t be able to leave his family what he intended to.
He’s been there before. In the early 1990, he was $3 billion in debt and failed at several projects because of inattention to details and a refusal to listen to expert advice. A TV programme saved his career. He was cast in a television programme called The Apprentice by NBC, which apparently believed his ghost-written book Art of The Deal was a truthful account. That fake reality show had people compete to be an apprentice at Trump’s company. It was a surprise hit with NBC paying him well for a decade. As that project slowed down, he focused on politics, claiming that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and, therefore, was not an American citizen. A fake issue amplified by people upset that the president was not a white male. That response underpins his core base—people upset about a changing America who wish for a mythical past that never existed.
Increasingly, Trump’s legal problems and campaign have become one. After the fraud verdict, he said: “If I weren’t running, none of this stuff would have ever happened, none of these lawsuits would have ever happened. I would have had a nice life. They’r using this as weaponization against a political opponent.”
Trump vowed to appeal the ruling and called Justice Arthur Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James “corrupt”. In an email appeal, he wrote, “Please make a contribution of $47 to accept your Founding Membership within THE PRESIDENT’S TRUST for the 2024 year to peacefully defend our movement from the never-ending witch hunts. As I’m not only facing attacks from the ruling party, but even from backstabbing Disloyal Republicans, I’m turning to my TRUSTED supporters like YOU to save our movement and save America.”
Political organisations are banned from using campaign donations for personal uses unrelated to a campaign or the official duties of an officeholder. Trump’s PACs have been using donations to pay the many lawyers defending him across his criminal and civil cases. In 2023, his various PACS spent nearly $50 million covering legal fees. The Republican National Committee doesn’t have the same ban on the personal use of funds, but raising money in competition with so many pro-Trump groups has been difficult. Paying Trump’s legal fines could jeopardise the non-profit status of a political organisation.
International and domestic affairs appeared to shift over the President’s Day national holiday weekend. The cost of not stopping Vladimir Putin is more obvious now to most Americans, except the MAGA Republicans. Since October, they have managed to delay a national security supplemental bill that would provide additional aid to Ukraine following Trump’s OK for Russia to attack some NATO members. At this critical juncture, the Republican House speaker sent the House on holiday. In electoral calculations, this seems unproductive as a reputable study indicates that 74% of Americans believe the war in Ukraine is vital to US interests, while 59% say it is important to them personally.
Navalny’s death coincided with the international Munich Security Conference. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark announced her nation will donate all its artillery to Ukraine. She suggested other countries, too, could do more than they already have. Sweden and the European Union have stepped up aid. There is increasing pressure, as well, to transfer Russia’s frozen assets in global banks to Ukraine.
Former Congressperson Liz Cheney said the Republican Party has a “Putin wing”, adding: “The issue of this election cycle is making sure the Putin wing of the Republican Party does not take over the West Wing of the White House.” Conservative pundit Bill Kristol agreed, saying: “The likely nominee of one of our two major political parties is pro-Vladimir Putin. This is an astonishing fact. It is an appalling fact. It has to be a central fact of the 2024 campaign.”
In the US, there has not been any apparent move from House Republicans to come back into session to approve the national security package with aid for Ukraine and Israel. Trump has loaded state Republican organisations with loyalists lining up behind him to pressure Congress to kill legislation at his demand. So far, 23 Republicans in the House have announced they won’t seek re-election out of fear or frustration.
Meanwhile, a criminal trial in New York State Court is scheduled to begin on March 25. It revolves around hush money paid to keep two sex workers from talking about their relationship with Trump. These payments sent Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, to jail. While the trial date was open and shut for the judge, Trump’s team fought his scheduling decision, claiming it violated Trump’s rights. Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche pointed to the ex-president’s classified documents case in Florida, which is expected to start in May. “It is completely election interference to say: ‘You are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan when there is no reason for it,’” Trump’s lawyer said. “What about his rights?” Trump said shortly before entering the courtroom. “How can you run for election if you’re sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long?”
What is clear from all of this is that emotions and prejudices are more critical in these campaigns than policies and actual performance for someone who wants to lead a very large nation. Democracy once again proves that it allows for boisterous and bewildering verbal combat that may be very expensive for people who can’t tell fact from fiction.
—The writer has worked in senior positions at The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CNN and also consults for several Indian channels