Today, the New York Times showed us more reasons President Donald Trump hides behind the Presidency. Trump argues that he can commit any crime legally simply because he holds the Presidency. Chockamo speculated in “Malfeasance, Lies, and Fraud: The Trump Corruption Update” that Trump might be underwater financially. He might need the office just to hold off his creditors. And now the NY Times shows us that Chockamo was correct. Even assuming Trump was criminally lying in his tax returns, he still has around $400M in personal debts coming due in the next three years, and an IRS case that might cost him another $100M in fees and fines. Add to that any money he owes to Russian oligarchs, and you have a man looking at personal bankruptcy.
First, some obvious things. Yes, the New York Times found that Trump is a tax cheat and a bad one. I don’t care. That’s someone else’s problem right now. And I don’t care whether Trump is as rich as he claims. I never did. And it’s not my problem whether he stole money from his family or his businesses. The question is whether Trump has been compromised, and how frantically he will cling to power. Will he sell his office and the country to save himself?
It’s still very early in the news cycle, and the Times has a huge document pile to go through. We’ll find out more as the days go along. We know Trump has been acting against the Country’s interests, at a minimum. It’s embarrassing to see how Trump hides behind the Presidency to dodge creditors.
But imagine Trump was desperate to find enough money to cover his interest payments for a couple of years. And he knows that one of Putin’s oligarchs might fund him. Do you wonder if Trump might simply give Putin gifts on the hope that it might buy him future loans, or loan forbearance? Because that’s how compromise usually works. There’s no defined quid pro quo. There’s just the knowledge that they have stuff you need, and so you compromise from what’s right to what will keep Putin happier.
And until then, Trump hides behind the Presidency, increasing scared and desperate, and willing to do anything to hold power.
