Follow the money, and you'll find Donald Trump in deep trouble

[marmar]

Follow the money, and you'll find Donald Trump in deep trouble
Fundraising figures tell a story of a troubled Trump campaign and triumphant Biden surge

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MARCH 18, 2024 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Back in 2000 when Donald Trump first tested the waters of a presidential campaign by giving a series of speeches as a possible Reform Party candidate, he famously told Forbes Magazine, “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it." He was speaking at the time about a weird deal he had going with motivational speaker Anthony Robbins in which he timed his political appearances around paid seminars that Robbins paid him a million bucks to give. By the time he decided to run for real in 2015, he didn't publicly suggest that he could make money campaigning but he did make the case that he was incorruptible saying, "I don't need anybody's money." (He'd obviously figured out that that real graft was to be made once he was in the White House.)

....(snip)....

Trump has been dancing as fast as he can for decades, trying to stay one step ahead of bankruptcy and the law and he has been successful at doing it, apparently leading him to truly believe that he could always prevail by sheer force of will. When the 2020 election didn't go his way, his fragile psyche couldn't take it and he simply created an alternate reality in order to cope. Now he's faced with the greatest challenge of his life, and he has to make one great hail mary pass in order to keep himself from going broke and out of prison. He has to win the presidency and he desperately needs money to pay his own legal expenses and finance his campaign. It's not going all that well.

....(snip)....

But what about his campaign? Considering his precarious personal financial situation there's no way that Trump will be self-funding any part of it and he's commandeered the RNC for his personal use, most likely to help him pay for any lawyers who won't allow him to stiff them. So, according to the New York Times, he's having to hustle like crazy for campaign donations:

One of the most pressing issues facing Mr. Trump is the financial disparity he and allied groups now face with Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party. Mr. Biden’s campaign announced on Sunday that it entered March with $155 million cash on hand with the party, after raising $53 million in February. The Trump operation has not released a more recent total, but his campaign account and the Republican National Committee had around $40 million at the end of January.

He's having to hit up billionaires and Wall Street more than ever before and it sure looks like he's making some deals, such as his abrupt turnaround on banning TikTok last week after meeting with one of their major investors. This is because so far, his small donor base appears to finally be a little bit tapped out. The campaign claims that February will be its strongest month for small dollar fundraising which would beat the $22.3 million in August. But as the Times pointed out, the Biden campaign is seeing a massive rush of small donor money, raising more than $10 million online after the State of the Union, more than doubling Trump's much-ballyhooed haul of $4.2 million from his ignominious mug shot. .............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/18/follow-the-money-and-youll-find-donald-in-deep-trouble/

[Omnipresent]

1. This is probably why Trump won't visit his father's grave.

Fred Trump’s hands would merge from the soil to choke Donnie while yelling, “You’re losing all the money i left you, and you have forever tarnished the Trump name!!”.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. I've always got a K & R for rump's monetary woes

May they be plentiful and everlasting.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Some oligarchs might rescue him. His SPAC deal for {un}TruthSocial might be worth $3 billion

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cash-flow-tmtg-merger-1876881

Trump, who was recently hit with a massive $454 million penalty in the New York civil fraud case, could benefit massively from the proposed deal. Once it closes, his stake in his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), could be worth as much as $3 billion. TMTG is the parent company of Trump's Truth Social, the platform he started after being banned from sites like Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Because Trump would own 79 million shares in the postmerger company, the deal could give him a "financial lifeline," according to The New York Times. The stock closed on Wednesday at $40.19 per share. At that price, Trump's overwhelmingly majority stake would be worth over $3.1 billion.

There is some kind of vote on March 22 about the merger deal of TMTG with DWAC.

tRump would not be able to liquidate all his shares without crashing the stock, but it becomes collateral for loans and he can sell some for cash.

[Blue Owl]

4. Cue up Joe Biden's now-classic joke:

“The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’”
Biden then replied to him, “‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

[Stuart G]

5. K & R (no text)