The former president would have to prove the damage amounts surpass his total net worth to file for personal bankruptcy.
Trump on Monday repeated claims that his financial statements were “understated, not overstated.”
However, if the Trump Organization were to file for bankruptcy, Trump would still be liable to pay under the judge’s ruling.
Trump was ordered Friday to pay $354.8 million for conspiring to alter his net worth to receive tax and insurance benefits.
That amount is compounded by prejudgement interest from the time he profited from his alleged fraud at an annual rate of 9 percent, per New York law.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that about half of that interest, tied to loan savings, can be calculated from 2019, when the New York attorney general’s investigation began. The rest, linked to two Trump property sales, is calculated beginning in May 2022 and June 2023.
In total, Trump owed
another $98.6 million in interest the day Engoron issued his ruling, bringing the grand total to $453.5 million.
But that number will only continue to grow until Trump pays the penalty. Every day, interest increases the total amount Trump owes by more than $87,000.
Trump’s net worth is famously obscure, but estimators including Forbes and Bloomberg place his wealth between $2.6 billion and $3.1 billion.
How much cash Trump has on hand is another question. The former president himself told lawyers with the New York attorney general’s office he has “substantially in excess of $400 million in cash.”
“We have a lot of cash,” Trump said in a deposition last year, purporting that figure is “going up very substantially every month.”
Estimates have put Trump’s liquid assets, or cash and personal assets, at around $600 million.
The Hill’s Ella Lee and Brett Samuels have more here.
