Two recent verdicts have now left Donald Trump on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars.

On Friday, a New York judge handed the former president a $355 million penalty, and banned him from serving in a leadership position in any business in New York for three years, for fraudulently inflating his net worth to lenders in order to receive more favorable loan agreements. And in January, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay the writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her after she accused him of raping her. (A separate jury in May had found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s.)

“It’s pretty scary from an ethics perspective,” said Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group that has chronicled Trump’s abuses of power and filed lawsuits against him.

You don’t have to look far to find the reasons why. Trump’s first term was riddled with conflicts of interest, and that’s in no small part because of his financial well-being (or lack thereof, depending on how you look at it). At the time that he tried to overturn the 2020 election, he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, largely stemming from loans to help rehabilitate his struggling businesses, and most of which would be coming due over the subsequent four years. Throughout his presidency, he refused to divest from his businesses, which made millions of dollars in revenue from taxpayers and continued to do work with other countries while he was in office — a practice he indicated he would repeat in a second term.

  • dephyre@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Good thing he launched a sneaker line today, that’ll really turn things around.

          • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Ah fuck. That’s the kicker. I was always off the opinion that we lived in a simulation. Now, I’m thinking we’re living in a reality written by AI inside a simulation.

            • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I think the most likely thing given how dumb a lot of the writing is for this reality is that this reality was made as a cheap corporate knockoff of some other handmade reality. It is the only thing that explains both the potential evident in the beauty of our reality and the maddening lack of fulfillment of it in favor of (unbelievably) dumb shit happening over and over again.

        • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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          10 months ago

          Strange you call that a storm. That’s a press release for marketing purposes. The media are falling into the same trap as before. Clicks for them equals incomez so all the crazy and stupid stuff trump does that can be monitored, is.

          Anyone remember press conferences from trump hotels? Not to mention events, conferences, NFTs etc. It’s all a con and we and they need to stop giving it air.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The line, called Trump Sneakers

      The high tops, which are gold and emblazoned with a “T” on the outside of each shoe, are called the “Never Surrender High Top Sneaker” and are priced at $399 online. The athletic shoes, which feature a “T” and the number 45 on the sides are priced at $199.

      This man (and whoever he works with) does not have an ounce of creativity in his entire body.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It was also Trump’s tagline sold on T-shirts under the mugshot shot picture that was taken when he surrendered to the police.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          These dumbfucks are wearing shirts that commemorate his literal surrender, bearing the slogan “never surrender”. They are fucking stupid, in other words.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        For the dumbasses that are going to buy and wear these to virtue signal to other dumbasses, no creativity is needed. These are the people that think it’s a real knee-slapper to wear “Let’s Go Brandon” gear (or “Fuck Your Feelings” or “Trump that Bitch” or…).

        If they are spending lots of money to “own the libs” - which really means signal to all family and friends, as well as strangers to stay TF away from them - they are going to spend it on any form of obvious dreck like this.

      • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Fuck me, one of my daughters was randomly assigned #45 for club volleyball this season. Didn’t even think about it but now I feel dirty.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Be pretty funny if Nike held a trademark for sneakers with a 45 on them for that reason…

        • x4740N@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I’m going to feel sorry for the parents that force their children to wear these

        • JonEFive@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          If you know anything about sneaker-heads, you know they don’t often wear their very expensive sneakers.

          Which makes these things even more stupid. But you and I aren’t the target demographic for throwing $400 in a trash can.

          • generichate1546@lemmynsfw.com
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            10 months ago

            I know I don’t wear my USA made Vans I bought when I was young nor do I wear my North Face Vans…but I couldn’t be bothered to think about that trash…hell of but hitops and spray paint them gold first, if I was into that sort of thing.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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      10 months ago

      If you’re not a US citizen, then I guess it’s not your direct (financial) problem.

      Otherwise, I think the point of the article is that, if re-elected, he’s going to grift even harder than the first time by funneling even more taxpayer money into his businesses.

      Throughout his presidency, he refused to divest from his businesses, which made millions of dollars in revenue from taxpayers and continued to do work with other countries while he was in office — a practice he indicated he would repeat in a second term

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        If re-elected we’ve all of a sudden got so many more problems, his grift falls way down the list. I’m would be more concerned about ever having an election again if Trump gets back into power than I am if he self-enriches while in office.

        Him being further in debt, real debt that he actually has to put up money to deal with is absolutely fantastic. It puts him in a weaker, less flexible position for bullshit going into he election. His corruption will be on full display as he robs Peter to pay Paul.

        This article is a bit of a gaslight. Its really not our problem. Him being elected again is a much bigger problem. Him having to pay up on these debts makes that harder.

        • workerONE@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          He was trying to get a Trump Tower in Moscow and pretty much bowing down to Putin and trying to break up NATO to help Russia. He’ll do anything for money, it’s a big problem

    • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Seriously! If I’m broke and owe people money is Trump gonna come and help me out? If not, that fucker can lie in the bed he’s made. If he can’t afford to pay, garnish his wages. At the end of the day, Trump is a regular citizen. Whether he accepts it or not is irrelevant to the facts. He might be rich (or once was) and is used to the silver spoon lifestyle, but why should that matter to me? The closest I’ll get to “silver spoon” is stainless steel. The closest this dude should get to compassion is the warm embrace of a guillotine.

      • DreamerofDays@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        When in his almost eighty years on this planet has he ever acted or been treated like a regular citizen? Regardless of what should be, and what should have been, he isn’t normal. He is, by luck, by practice, and by preternatural talent, always evading consequences.

        Those he cannot evade, he deflects onto others. So this moment of extraordinary , if his pattern holds, will also be extraordinarily laid upon others. If the GOP doesn’t find a way to remove it for him, and he doesn’t win the presidency, they know they’re in line to be footing the bill. If he does win the presidency, he’ll either evade(saying the president cannot be beholden to such a punishment and serve) or deflect, and through internal graft or external selling of favor, we’ll all end up paying his bill.

        This isn’t an argument to feel sorry for him, nor to soften the judgment against him. This is an argument to be wary that he is still the same person he was before the judgment, and is likely to be as conniving as he has always been, if not the more so if he feels cornered by it.

        • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          This is a pretty big lump of coal to put in his stocking. How he reacts will be interesting and we should watch it closely.

          My called shot is he just doesn’t pay. I don’t know what happens after that.

  • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    So I went to the Saudis - lovely people by the way with the best camels, just amazing - and I said hey, I’ve got this problem with a judge and I need half a billion. And they said ‘Donald, don’t worry about it, we got you’ and that’s how I got rid of those crooked Democrats and their election interference case

    We are about to witness either;

    • An epic fire sale of Trump world assets to cover this judgment bill
    • Donald trying to weasel out of this, as long as the courts allow
    • The biggest foreign influence operation this country has ever seen
      • uis@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        My bet is Voronizh budget will be cut in half. Also Trump will get donation of half the Voronezh’s budget.

    • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      He’s not gonna pay shit and we’re well on our way to forgetting about it. As soon as the papers stop asking the judge will lower the sentence or some shit. The courts are for us, not for them.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      No, I really do honestly. He needs to be out, gone, out of the media’s eye. He’ll just bleed some more off his upper middle class and his lower lower class. If he does manage to make it back in He’s going to owe a whole bunch of people a whole bunch of favors and most of what they want from him are going to qualify as human rights violations.

  • Ech@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    We really think he wouldn’t have sold out the country before this? This is basically an argument that we shouldn’t hold Trump accountable because he might do something rash or lash out. Fuck that and fuck him. He shouldn’t get special treatment. Throw the book at him.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    The funniest thing is that he could have replenished his coffers on Inauguration Day with one phone call to the Saudi embassy.

    “Hey, here’s the deal. $20 billion in my account by tomorrow night, or I call for the Green New Deal AND accuse you guys of being part of 9/11.”

    Even Fredo Corleone could have handled that.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      10 months ago

      And when that recorded call is leaked? It would be damning enough Republicans might consider impeachment.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The leaked bribery call he made to Ukraine resulted in impeachment, but because Democrats were in charge. His trial in the Senate found he wasn’t guilty. And ever since, Republicans have been trying to get revenge.

        So I have no idea why you think that.

      • d0ct0r0nline@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I mean, I am thoroughly unconvinced that any amount of damning evidence will erode his suppose among Republicans. He just has to keep running the same plays and claim it’s “fake news”, that it was some kind of deep fake, let QAnon float around a conspiracy, or even at this point maybe even sit back and let the base contort itself from condemning the move to hailing it as a political master stroke of putting pressure on an American adversary.

      • saltesc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Oh, don’t be so dramatic. Americans don’t do shit about corruption in their government unless it’s a blowie from an intern.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Now you’re just nitpicking. A few minutes consideration could come up with dozens of ways of securely getting the message across.

  • Harpsist@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I hope he sold those national secrets for more then half a billion.

    Edit: no I don’t.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I wish all of tiny d’s problems were just his. He should be headed to prison and his dumb ass given zero platform.

  • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    That’s nothing. In Malaysia the former pm claimed the house of Saud donated several hundred million to his campaign coffers just before our 14th general election. Maybe denigrating anyone not christian or white was not a good idea.

  • spider@lemmy.nz
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    10 months ago

    From Thursday:

    Donald Trump has doubled down on his threat to undermine Nato, saying “we’re not going to protect” allied countries he believes do not pay enough to maintain the alliance if he returns to the White House next year.

    Meanwhile, this f**king deadbeat gets Secret Service protection for life, funded by U.S. taxpayers.

    • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Sure would save us some money if we’d throw the crook in jail. I know he’d still have SS there, but I’d imagine it would be way cheaper.

      • spider@lemmy.nz
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        10 months ago

        Factoring in the number of people who claim they’ll piss on his grave, they might need SS there, too.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Together, the damages from these two lawsuits are worth more than the amount of cash Trump claimed to have on hand last April, potentially putting him in a financial bind as he also faces debt repayments and mounting legal fees.

    But Trump isn’t just one of the country’s richest men, with an estimated net worth in the low billions; he’s also running to serve a second term as president of the United States.

    At the time that he tried to overturn the 2020 election, he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, largely stemming from loans to help rehabilitate his struggling businesses, and most of which would be coming due over the subsequent four years.

    Throughout his presidency, he refused to divest from his businesses, which made millions of dollars in revenue from taxpayers and continued to do work with other countries while he was in office — a practice he indicated he would repeat in a second term.

    To believe that the potential for that kind of revenue could not influence Trump’s agenda, or even travel itinerary, would require an extraordinary level of trust in the former president — something most voters don’t have.

    After his former lenders cut ties with him in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, for example, Axos Bank, whose CEO is a Republican donor, swooped in and loaned the former president some $225 million, helping Trump shore up his finances.


    The original article contains 1,635 words, the summary contains 238 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!