By his
own account, since 2022, he has anticipated that there would be a significant
award against him for persistent fraud. He says it’s all a witch hunt, a
fact-free assault, ignoring the mountain of evidence from his own files and the
fact that every witness he put forth, save one who the judge noted carefully
limited his testimony to verifiable facts lied, dissembled, or posed as an expert
despite having no expertise.
Yet,
despite knowing what was coming, Trump didn’t prepare or arrange financing to
protect his assets. As I’ve written many times, Trump lives a nightmare version
of Groundhog Day, trapped in his junior high school years. This case shows how,
instead of planning, Trump is like a student who stays up late partying and realizes
at dawn that he has only until noon to turn in his semester essay.
If Trump
somehow pulls a half billion dollars out of someone’s vaults, we face a
national security nightmare, whether the source is American or a foreign
national or entity. If you doubt that, just remember how Trump says he likes
people who put money in his pockets—Russians, Saudis, etc. And remember, he
gave away sensitive secrets in a secret meeting in May 2017 with the Russian
foreign minister and ambassador, stole a massive trove of national security
documents, lied and denied regarding the whereabouts of those documents, and
shared secrets with a group of unauthorized Americans and with an equally
unauthorized Australian billionaire.