Missing the Point – Looking forward to a desperate Donald Trump declaring personal bankruptcy soon

Yes, there is a better-than-even chance that Donald Trump is going to declare bankruptcy – and then blame it on the Democrats of course.  I can hear him now…  “Crooked Joe and his Justice Department henchmen left me no choice!” he will shout at his rallies.  “If it can happen to me, it can happen to you!”  He’ll play the victim.  Tell the people that only he can save them.  And ask them to send him money.  Send him money because he’s tapped out.

Donald Trump isn’t just running for President for the power trip of it all.  That would be “so 2016” when he ran the first time.  This time he’s running to avoid spending the last years of his life in relative poverty and quite possibly in jail.  It’s too late, but that’s something he can’t admit to himself.  It’s all over for his dreams of being re-elected and then ordering the Justice Department to stand down and pardon himself from federal criminal convictions.  Soon enough, it’s going to be official that he’s the loser he was born to be.  It’s only a matter of time.

Why is Nikki Haley still in the race for the Republican nomination?  It’s not because she wants to be Vice President in a second Trump administration.  It’s because she’s gambling that the convergence of Trump’s legal and financial problems will overwhelm him – in life and the polls – before the Republican National Convention and Donald won’t be nominated.  Some money is still betting she’s right.  The Koch brothers suspended funding for Nikki’s campaign on the heels of her loss in South Carolina, but she’s not done yet.  Skillful use of free media exposure, together with fewer TV ads and less paid staff will keep her in the race for a good while.

What she’s waiting for, but that the media doesn’t talk about enough, is for people to realize just how broke, how cash-poor Donald Trump really is.  The Jean Carroll judgment is $83 million and change.  The New York civil fraud judgment is $454 million including interest.  That’s a total of over half a billion dollars that he needs to either post in cash or bonds, if he is willing and able to offer his most valuable assets as security.  This is money he needs to post now, within the next thirty days, to appeal the judgments against him.  And there’s no certainty these appeals will do anything for him other than rack up more legal fees he can’t afford to pay.

So far, he’s been unable or unwilling to post a bond for the $83 million judgment.  What makes anyone think he’ll be able to do the same for the other $454 million?

The more than half a billion Donald needs, right now, greatly exceeds what he can literally steal from mostly small-dollar contributors to his various PACs – and from which he’s already taken $50 million to cover legal expenses to date.  Yes, I said “steal.”  More on that in a moment.  In the meantime, he has appealed the larger civil fraud judgment and has until only March 25 to put up the money or bond to “secure a stay.”

Why do you think Donald needs Nikki Haley out of the race?  It’s so that he can be the last candidate standing, the de facto nominee of his party.  As such, he can stop campaigning and save those millions of dollars – and take control of the already financially strapped RNC (Republican National Committee) and its contributions.

This is the behavior of someone in serious financial trouble who can’t admit his desperation to himself or, heaven forbid, his minions.  Haley is right.  It’s not that Trump got 60% of the vote in South Carolina.  It’s that 40% of the vote went to a single opponent.  His MAGA groupies may still be with him, but his support outside that base is beginning to evaporate.  That he’s still polling close to Biden in the general election polls says more about Joe’s weakness as a candidate than about Donald’s attractiveness to prospective voters.

Donald needs to keep faking it, to keep people thinking he’s still super rich, just not as liquid as he needs to be right now.  In that context, don’t think for a moment that he’s not seriously considering declaring personal bankruptcy.  Knowing what you know about Donald Trump, do you really think he’s going to willingly pay anyone $500+ million, in the next few months, for anything other than a building?  Even if he had the money, which he doesn’t?

Donald has to come up with a total of $537 million that he needs to appeal or pay the judgments against him, plus money for legal services to defend himself in the criminal cases that are still open.  Without the liquidity he needs to deliver these funds – and in light of court-imposed restrictions on borrowing money from lenders registered in New York – what are his choices?

Under the circumstances, it may make more sense for him to declare bankruptcy and work with the court.  “In fact,” he’s probably been asking himself, “having been forced into declaring bankruptcy by the radical Democratic left and their leader, Joe Biden, it may have substantially positive campaign value!  Might even boost my standing in the polls.  Think of how much more money I can sucker small-dollar contributors into putting up to save me?”

With the RNC’s dwindling financial reserves – while Joe Biden continues to benefit from surprisingly robust contributions – some Republicans are beginning to resist Donald’s taking over the RNC by putting Trumpie Michael Whatley and Donald’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, in charge.  So much for using RNC money to underwrite down-ballot races for the House and Senate.  Like everything else in Donald’s world, it’s all about him.

More to the point, state and federal laws prohibit the use of campaign contributions for personal expenses.  Trump has already taken $50 million in contributions to cover the costs of defending himself in federal and state courts.  No doubt, he plans to do the same out of contributions made to the RNC.  The question is, are the transfers from all these PACS and the RNC legal?

When you go to the RNC website and see the “Contribute” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screenshot below, you have every right to believe your money will be used for campaign purposes.  For campaign purposes and not for personal use by a candidate – not for expenses having nothing directly and explicitly to do with campaign operations.  If a candidate does something to make a fool of himself, he can’t use campaign contributions to make the problem go away.  In fact, it’s not just an assumption you’d be making.  It’s the law.

According to the Federal Election Commission…

Here’s the link to the “FECTube” video cited in the screenshot above.  This is federal, but states have similar laws.  The point is, you’re not supposed to use campaign contributions for personal expenses, period.  The thing is, Donald Trump couldn’t care less about this simple, common-sense principle.  Why?  Because Donald has a special relationship with the law and other basic principles of civilized behavior that isn’t the same as it is for most of us, normal Republicans included.  He’s a lifelong fraudster whose conscience isn’t at all offended by betraying the good will of people who have chosen to believe in him.

Donald, your time is up.  Despite your voracious appetite for chaos and clinically narcissistic disregard for law and order, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.

In some odd way, it’s impressive how much you’ve accomplished, in a manner of speaking, including having been elected once President of the United States.  You may be a world-class jerk, but you’ve managed, for a while, to excel at perpetrating one of the great cons of all time.  Thanks.  It’s been a teaching experience from which we are all learning a great deal about human nature and politics.