A Bad Day for Trump, a Great Day for America

Having a rough start to your work week?

At least it's not as bad as Donald Trump's Monday. From the New York Times: 

Donald J. Trump is expected to spend his Monday morning in the courtroom of a New York judge who might soon preside over his criminal trial and, ultimately, throw him behind bars. And that’s not even the legal predicament that worries Mr. Trump most that day.

The hearing in his Manhattan criminal prosecution — in which he is accused of covering up a sex scandal to pave his way to the presidency — comes as he races to fend off a financial crisis arising from a $454 million judgment in another case. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, who brought that civil fraud suit against the former president and his family business, might begin to collect as soon as Monday.

To avoid a mortal threat to the Trump Organization, Mr. Trump must persuade another company to post a bond on his behalf, promising that it will cover the judgment if he loses a pending appeal and fails to pay. Yet Mr. Trump’s lawyers in court papers said that securing the bond would be a “practical impossibility,” because he would need to pledge some $550 million in cash and liquid investments as collateral to the bond company — an admission that laid bare the former president’s cash crunch.

Unless Mr. Trump strikes an 11th-hour deal, Ms. James could freeze his bank accounts, and begin the long and complicated process of seizing some of his properties. And barring Mr. Trump’s lawyers achieving an improbable legal triumph, the judge in his criminal case could set a trial date for as soon as next month.

Donald Trump has always been a phony. But until his fateful descent down that Trump Tower escalator in 2015, his phoniness hadn't mattered. While people in the know knew that Trump was worth far less than he claimed, the general public saw him as a titan of industry. As a reality TV star. As a celebrity billionaire. While it was clear that Trump himself was a gigantic asshole, he still had the allure of those who sought great riches and fortune. Impressionable Americans felt that they, too, could one day rise to the stature of Donald Trump. They wanted to be him in his golden tower married to a supermodel wife, boarding his private plane and traveling the world. For a certain segment of Americans, Donald Trump was their role model. He was the rich, successful businessman they all aspired to be.

That is no longer the case.

Seeing Trump unable to put up the $550 million to the bond company this past week has shown everyone, including his most die-hard supporters, that Donald Trump is not the multi-billionaire he has claimed to be. For decades, he overvalued his assets. His team of lawyers pulled out every trick in the book to do so. Like so many in his income bracket, he tweaked the numbers so that he wouldn't have to pay taxes. To him, that was "smart"; for the rest of us playing by the rules, that was cheating and manipulating the system. Trump's overarching business model has been to screw over his small contractors and tie them up in court so they would have to accept far less payment than initially agreed upon. When Trump himself got into trouble for his lewd and salacious behavior, he turned to threats, intimidation, and ultimately paying for the silence of those he had wronged such as Stormy Daniels. Money for Donald Trump was both an end goal and a tool that could be wielded to get what he wanted. He saw his perceived wealth as the key to living the type of life he always wanted to live.

Donald Trump will have a section in American history. But it will not be the section he envisioned. Instead of being seen as a visionary businessman, Trump will be seen as a traitor. As someone who lied and manipulated his way to perceived business success. As someone whose ego couldn't allow him to be publicly ridiculed by a Black man. As someone who sold out the country to the highest bidder. As a modern-day Benedict Arnold. As a womanizer and rapist. As someone who failed to protect the American people. As the worst president our country has ever had. 

And yet, of all of those attributes, the one that will bother Trump the most is the fact that he will no longer have the aura of being rich and successful. That has always been his key motivating factor. Trump's ego needed this to be true. He needed to prove to his dad that he could do it on his own, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars Trump borrowed from him over the years. This obsession led Trump to conduct business the way that they did. To live his life the way that he did. He wanted the appearance of being rich while simultaneously having his people work behind the scenes to lie, cheat, and steal to keep up that appearance. But once he left office in 2020, that facade came crashing down. He was once again a private citizen. Tish James had him in her sights. For the first time in his life, Donald Trump was facing real accountability. 

Today is a good day. It's a good day for decency and the rule of law. Donald Trump's empire is slowly crashing down. The four trials this year may yield jail time for Trump. But it is the financial cases that have hurt him the most. Between the E. Jean Carroll and Tish James verdicts, we've seen how much of a risk Donald Trump is to investors. The aura around Donald Trump has faded. If Tish James follows through on her promise and starts seizing Trump properties this week, then that would be a fatal blow to Donald Trump. Because seeing a Black woman take over would be something that Donald Trump could never get over. How ironic would it be then for Tish James to take back Trump properties when it was the issue of housing discrimination against Black tenants in the 1970s that first got Donald Trump on the national scene. History doesn't always come full circle, but when it does it can be delightfully delicious. 

And today is certainly one of those days. 

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