Donald Trump is going for bellyaching gold with his latest complaints, which emerge even as the disgraced former president is served a massive win.
The former president and current human manifestation of a crippling migraine is never out of the news cycle for long, but the latest updates in his ongoing court cases is less than satisfying. A last-minute decision from a state appeals court slashed the president’s looming court costs by more than half, but only where his bond is concerned. The 77-year-old now owes a mere $175 million, reduced from $464 million, in bond, and he has 10 days to pay it.
Its vital to note that the reduction in bond does not equal a reduction in overall fees, but that doesn’t eliminate the clear optics of the situation. Once again, the American public is watching as our systems massively benefit the mega-rich even as regular citizens are forced into bankruptcy by far harsher hands. Trump, assuming his appeals don’t work out, will still be forced to pay more than $450 million in legal fees or sacrifice his businesses. He just has more time to do so, and a lower penalty out the gate.
It’s a massive win for Trump, who can now head into his appeals without putting his assets at risk. Despite his major victory, however, the professional crybaby wasted no time in seizing yet another opportunity to paint himself as the victim. Sprinting to Truth Social — his social media platform of choice — in the wake of the decision, Trump somehow twisted the hefty reduction into yet another bad choice by the opposition.
Shared alongside a Fox News clip, Trump quoted conservative attorney Jonathan Turley in his reaching post. He emphasized Turley’s claims about the risk to businesses operating in New York in his accompanying caption, noting that his court loss “has really done great damage to the New York legal system,” and appealed to his wealthy fellows, in particular, when adding “businesses are looking at this with a degree of horror—that a judge could come up with a figure so large you have to sell parts of your business just to get an appeal.”
Its a massively detached take, and one that truly exposes how far removed Trump is from the general American public. A truly tiny percentage of American citizens concern themselves with the inner workings of big business, and — while the shuttering of businesses inevitably affects workers — Trump’s attempts to appeal to regular Americans by trumpeting about massive companies is an illuminating moment. The man doesn’t care a lick about the people he supposedly supports — he just cares about money, his legacy, and the millionaires he’s been rubbing elbows with since he was in pull-ups.
The world’s smallest violin may look almost full-sized in Trump’s tiny hands, but its song sounds awfully familiar echoing from those leathery fingers. Its a tale as old as time, as a massively influential billionaire works to elicit sympathy from people pulling in $50k a year because he has to pay a fraction of what he owes. This is nothing but a win for Trump, don’t be mistaken, but he’ll continue to twist it into any narrative that suits him, and all that garnered sympathy will aid him in once again dodging punishment for his laundry list of crimes.
