(Optional Musical Accompaniment to This Post)
Oh, this doesn't sound good at all. Large financial institutions seem to be coming to the same conclusions reached years ago by countless anonymous tradesmen in Atlantic City. Some deadbeats are a lot deader than others. From The New York Times:
Donald J. Trump’s lawyers disclosed on Monday that he had failed to secure a roughly half-billion dollar bond.... Mr. Trump has asked the appeals court to pause the $454 million judgment that a New York judge imposed on Mr. Trump in the fraud case last month, or accept a bond of only $100 million. Otherwise, the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the case, might soon move to collect from Mr. Trump. Still, even if the higher court rejects his appeal, Mr. Trump is not entirely out of options. He might appeal to the state’s highest court, quickly sell an asset or seek help from a wealthy supporter.
It is, of course, that last part that sounds alarms you can hear on Jupiter. No doubt the former president* has many "wealthy supporters" who would not blink at buying a future president*. Many of the ones bandied about in the media come down on the sleazy side of slimy. Hypothetically speaking. Saudi princes. Russian oligarchs. Even the Mob, but they might find helping him out a little pricey. After all, the Mob doesn't have oil reserves or coal mines or a nuclear arsenal. And to have this news coincide with a report that the former president* is bringing back Paul Manafort, well, it doesn't exactly scream "fiscal transparency."
This development also coincides with one of the last real loyalists, Peter Navarro, arriving for his extended experiment in institutional dining.
Before reporting to jail, Navarro spoke for 30 minutes at a gas station and called the case against him an “unprecedented assault on the constitutional separation of powers.” He claimed that the legal tactics that were used against him would be used against Trump: “I am pissed – that’s what I am feeling right now.” His conviction was a rare example of a member of Trump’s inner circle being held accountable by the criminal justice system for their resistance to scrutiny. Navarro’s stint in prison comes as Trump himself has yet to face criminal consequences for the various crimes he’s been accused of committing.
Navarro is a human being in eclipse now. His old boss can't even see him.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
