Donald Trump’s biographer says the former president’s finances will soon be exposed as a sham, thanks to a $454 million fine he owes to the state of New York.
Tim O’Brien told MSNBC: “It’s now 2024 and he’s about to be exposed.”
‘It’s going to be a slow process. I don’t think there will be much drama on Monday. But begins the process of opening the kimono and discovering that, indeed, Donald Trump does not have financial clothes, at least not the kind of financial clothes that he claims to have.
O’Brien has suggested that Trump – whose net worth is estimated at $2.6 billion – has access to far less liquid cash than he claims. New York Attorney General Letitia James is said to be considering seizing one of the former president’s golf clubs and a country estate as collateral.
Trump was fined $464 million for inflating the value of his assets to obtain more favorable loan terms. He is appealing that ruling, but must post $557 million bail by Monday, and his assets will likely be seized if he is unable to do so.
Trump has until Monday to post his $454 million bail before the state can begin seizing his property.
In February, as the highly contentious legal battle drew to a close, New York Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and some of his business associates had illegitimately inflated the value of their assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers.
Judge Engoron, who had previously imposed a gag order on Trump after he posted a derogatory comment about the judge’s law clerk on social media, ordered the former president to pay approximately $355 million in fraud fines, plus interest.
With interest, the amount Trump owes exceeds $464 million. Trump has maintained his innocence and intends to appeal the ruling.
Tim O’Brien, a senior editor at Bloomberg, wrote TrumpNation, a biography of Trump that was published in 2005.
Attorney General Letitia James has already started the process so that the state can confiscate Trump’s property
The former president has until Monday to post his nine-figure bail, a staggering sum that Trump has had trouble raising. Chubb, the insurance company that underwrote Trump’s $91.6 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll case, told the Republican front-runner’s legal team they were not an option.
If Trump does not make full payment or obtain bail by Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James may begin seizing his property.
On Friday, the New York attorney general’s office filed rulings in Westchester County, where Trump’s New York golf course and private property are located.
Issuing a judgment is the first step a creditor would take in attempting to recover property. Attorney General James’ decision to hand down the sentence in Westchester is a clear sign that the state is preparing to seize the former president’s property.
Judgments have also been filed in New York City, where other Trump properties are located, including his prized possession, Trump Tower.
Trump has this weekend to try to find a way out of this situation. His lawyers have said the former president has faced “insurmountable difficulties” in trying to secure bail.
Trump’s estate in Seven Springs, north of Manhattan, is one of the properties that the attorney general’s office is willing to seize
Seven Springs sits on 370 peaceful acres in Westchester County
Attorney General’s Office Targets Trump’s New York Golf Club, Also in Westchester
Accompanying Lawrence O’Donnell on his MSNBC program, Trump’s former biographer said the true state of Donald Trump’s financial affairs was about to be revealed.
Trump has tried to counter claims that he does not have enough money to pay the bond. Even though his lawyers said in a court filing on Monday that he had been unable to obtain bail, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday that he had nearly $500 million in cash.
His post, written in all caps, read: “Thanks to hard work, talent and luck, I currently have nearly half a billion dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president.”
O’Brien, who is currently a senior executive editor at Bloomberg Opinion and was previously a reporter for the New York Times, wrote TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, a biography written with Trump’s cooperation and published in 2005.
In his television appearance on Friday, O’Brien recounted a conversation he had had with Trump in which the former president spoke about his past and expressed regret for declaring bankruptcy.
Trump’s lawyers said in a court filing on Monday that the team had been unable to obtain financial backing for bail.
O’brien said Trump’s wealth is less than he lets on and that the former president ‘is about to be exposed’ for the $454 million bonus
“He said, ‘You know, my dad always said, ‘You never personally guarantee any loan.’ And I made a mistake. I personally guaranteed too much money in the early 1990s,” O’Brien recalled. ”I didn’t think it would reach me. So it was. And I learned my lesson. After that, he would never personally guarantee a loan.”
The biographer would later learn that Trump allegedly lied when he said that.
‘I didn’t know it, but it turned out that he had personally guaranteed some of the loans for the new building he was building in Chicago. Then, he goes through those searing moments where he almost loses everything he can and has, and says: ”I learned these lessons; I should have listened to my father.” Lo and behold, he’s doing the same thing.’
O’Brien said the civil fraud case was proof that Trump is “not learning his lessons.”
‘Does not adequately anticipate problems. He doesn’t do it because he’s a juvenile delinquent; “He lacks the maturity, wisdom and strategic vision of an adult,” he stated.
When O’Brien published his biography of the former president, Trump filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the journalist, seeking $2.5 billion in compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages.
Trump’s lawsuit focused on a claim O’Brien made in his book that Trump was not a billionaire but had a net worth ranging from $150 million to $250 million.
Trump’s bellicose lawsuit, which had all the hallmarks of Roy Cohn’s legal playbook, was dismissed by a judge in 2009, a decision that was upheld by an appeals court in 2011.
Trump has tried to quell the impression that he can’t build ties by posting on Truth Social that he has nearly half a billion dollars in cash.
Trump and O’Brien had a legal dispute when the biographer’s book was published because the former president objected to O’Brien’s claim that he was not a billionaire.
Trump tries to project an image of unassailable wealth, and O’Brien believed the former president’s outlandish reaction to the biography’s claims about his net worth stemmed from his desire to maintain that image.
In an interview with Washington Mail As of 2016, O’Brien noted that only a few pages of the biography explored Trump’s net worth.
He said Trump’s frustration over the claim was “a measure of his deep insecurity.”
“His wealth and the size of his wealth … are integral to how he wants people to perceive him,” O’Brien said.
If Trump fails to raise $454 million by Monday, that image will take a serious hit.