Sunday, March 24, 2024

Trump’s Excuses Get Dumber And Dumber

Trump, for his part, has pushed back on reports of his financial struggles. On Friday, he said he has more than $500 million in cash, conflicting with his attorneys who said he doesn’t have enough to cover the $454 million bond he must submit. However, he indicated he doesn’t intend to use it. 
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to give money to a rogue and incompetent judge — the puppet of a corrupt attorney general who’s failing with violent crime and migrant crime and whose only purpose in life is attempting to get Trump,” Trump told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Yeah. That’s not even vaguely how it works. That kind of stupid may send a thrill up the leg of MAGA, but the real world remains unmoved. And it just gives his lawyers headaches.
Provisions in the merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. and Truth Social prevent major shareholders from selling their stock for at least six months, so the $3.5 billion that Trump — who will be the majority shareholder — could make from the deal would likely not be available in time for when the bond is due. However, Trump could try to get a waiver to allow him to sell his shares if the board of the company, which largely comprises his allies, agrees.
He’d better have that waiver right now, and sell as soon as the IPO hits the market, or that expected $3.5 billion will never appear. If it ever does. Besides, the court would seize the money and pay New York straight out of it. New York probably doesn’t want the stock; the value is too speculative.

But just follow the money:
At the same time, Trump is being outpaced by Biden in how much he is raising. In the last quarter of 2023, Biden raised $33 million, well ahead of the $19 million Trump did. 
That disparity has continued into the start of this year. Biden’s campaign apparatus raised $42 million in January, while Trump’s main committees only brought in $13.8 million. Trump stepped up his fundraising in February with just more than $20 million overall, but Biden’s operation took in $53 million. 
Some Republican strategists attributed the significant difference to Trump just emerging from an active and seriously contested Republican primary, while Biden faced little opposition to securing the nomination. 
“Republicans didn’t have to nominate Trump. Democrats had to nominate Biden. If Trump had been the sitting president in this scenario, he’d outraise Biden, no questions asked,” said Republican strategist Zachary Moyle.
And yet Haley has more money on hand than the RNC, which Trump promises to raid for his legal bills. And let’s see: Biden raised $33 million in the last quarter of 2023, $42 million in January. That’s $75 million, plus $53 million in February, for a total of $128 million. Trump has, per this report, $52.8 million, or less than Biden raised in February alone. And:
Trump’s fundraising committees spent almost $30 million on legal expenses throughout the second half of 2023, bringing his total spent on legal fees last year to about $50 million. His leadership PAC, Save America, spent nearly $3 million in legal consulting fees in January and another $5.6 million last month, leaving it with just $4 million cash on hand to start this month.
Trump has been off the campaign trail for over a week: And he canceled an Arizona rally because he couldn’t afford it. But sure, he’ll raise $76 million in short order to catch up with Biden. And spend most of it on lawyers. He’s spent almost $60 million since the middle of last year, and he has four major criminal trials to go, as well as 3 appeals (so far) to pursue. He’s going to have to out raise Biden by at least 2 to 1 just to stay even.

Anybody really expect Trump to self-fund his campaign off the illusory dollars he gets for Truth Social? I don’t think he’ll even try to pay his legal fees with that. If he ever gets it. The market wasn’t thrilled with the merger last week. No reason to expect the IPO will make Trump the next Elon Musk. I mean, even Tesla has something to sell. Trump is just trying to sell a platform nobody wants. His nearest comparison is Twitter, and Musk is losing audience and money on that at a rapid rate. And it’s still a better investment.

It turns out Trump’s share of Truth Social will be worth that much because he said it will be worth that much. We’ll see what the market says.
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