Donald Trump is now running out of time to secure
an appeal bond for his civil fraud case.
The former president has until just Monday to come up
with the cash for the
$464 million judgment. If Trump doesn't,
New York State Attorney General Letitia James could start seizing
his assets.
Trump's lawyers on Monday asked an appeals court to stop
the collection proceedings because they have not found a bond
company that's willing to back the former president.
According to his lawyers, Trump would actually need to put
up nearly
$557 million worth of collateral.
That's over half a billion dollars.
As the New York Times points out,
most of Trump's wealth is tied to his real estate
assets,
which bond companies will not accept as collateral
yesterday. See your Fox Business correspondent.
Fox Business correspondent Charlie Gasparino explained why Trump's billionaire friends
have yet to help him out.
What is this behind their reluctance?
Well, it's as of now.
So let's see are they great that they might not
see it anytime soon,
the money if he even succeeds on appeal.
What, what? What's what's? Yeah,
I mean that's that's one thing.
I mean I think I don't want to you know,
I don't want to speak for Bernie Marcus,
that's for sure. But but just generally Donald hasn't doesn't
have a great record of paying back banks over the
years and Donald Trump.
So you, you know, you can sort of surmise from
that what you what you will.
Joining us now. MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes.
Charlie, that seems like a pretty good train of thought.
Give Trump some money. You won't see it again.
So talk to us, though,
about just this moment here,
perhaps the reluctance of Trump's billionaire friends,
but also just what this means that he is now
facing potentially
losing much of his fortune or business empire as of
Monday.
Well, it's financially devastating to Donald Trump.
And it's also a devastating to his whole image,
to that whole myth that he created,
that he was this, this billionaire and this successful businessman,
which has always been questionable.
But I would also just note how dangerous this particular
moment is.
Because you know, as as he becomes more desperate,
who might he reach out
to for the money? You know the possibility.
And I know of Michael Cohen,
his former lawyer has raised the questions of the possible,
you know, national security implications of of all of this.
You know,
we do need to know at the end of the
day where this money comes from,
what the strings are and who the next president the
United States might be beholden to.
You know, once again, Donald Trump is pushing the envelope.
And we're faced with conditions,
circumstances that, you know, for which there's no precedent we
don't know.
Will it be the Saudis,
Might it be Russian oligarchs?
What shady dark money might actually come out of the
come out of the woodwork to bail Donald Trump out
at his moment of need.
You know we could be we could be at the
beginning of a rather another rather remarkable chapter in this
in the Trump saga.
Yeah. Something we'll need to follow closely.
We certainly know certainly know how foreign governments have tried
to financially influence Trump
in the past. Charlie. Of course Trump is not the
only one in his orbit facing legal troubles.
Peter Navarro ordered to report to prison.
You've also been writing about Steve Bannon and some of
the January 6th defendants.
Why do those cases stand out to you?
Well, I, by the way,
I find this whole January 6th story to be really
quite extraordinary.
You're interviewed a few minutes ago.
When you think about the fact that we're talking about
a criminal conspiracy being at the center of Donald Trump's
campaign and that Donald Trump has made this a feature
of his campaign. And I do think that people ought
to remember that we are talking particularly with the January
6th defendants.
We are talking about some individuals who who attack and
beat police officers,
you know, used bear spray against them,
beat them with flagpoles, beat them with batons and stolen
Shields.
This was an act of tremendous violence.
Five or six people died that day.
And yet Donald Trump, the leader of the party that
once claimed to be the Law and Order party,
has embraced these rioters, the people who attacked these officers
who were trying to defend the capital.
And Donald Trump is, has embraced them and is promising
to use his power to free them.
And he is the one who has made this
the centerpiece of his campaign.
You know, every once in a while,
you know, we're asked, why do you people keep talking
about January 6th so much?
Why do you keep talking about it so often?
Well, because Donald Trump keeps talking about it.
And Donald Trump apparently is going to keep talking about
this right through November,
which is really extraordinary when you think about the way
that he continues to make himself the center of the
circle of criminality.
And there's no question he's not running from January 6th.
He's embracing it. So. So Charlie,
you mentioned the election. It's it is a binary contest.
Now, Trump and Biden have this all but sewn up.
I just want to get your big picture thoughts as
to where things stand in the race right now.
President Biden did not receive a bump
in the approval ratings after the State of the Union,
but he did, I think,
reassure Democrats who were anxious about his candidacy.
He also has a huge fundraising advantage over Trump.
Trump up in the polls,
but just a little. It's a close race.
Where do you think things stand?
It's a very, very close race.
And you know, he may not,
Biden may not have gotten a bump,
but he certainly changed the mood and he changed the
narrative with that State of the Union address,
which is not insignificant. But also I think what we're
seeing is that reports of Republican unity have been greatly
exaggerated.
You look at the numbers from last night,
you have 20% of Republican primary voters who are telling
the exit pollsters that they are not going to vote
for Donald Trump.
They'll either vote for Joe Biden or they will sit
it out.
And I. So I do think that there are you
know there are concerns and of course then of course
and I think that there are some people who don't
really understand what a big deal the endorse the non
endorsement by Mike Pence was the signal that it sends
to other Republicans. Look you do not have to put
a party and Donald Trump ahead of country.
You do not necessarily need to go along with all
of this And I'm I'm really interested to see how
this all plays out.
You know, as you mentioned,
it's a binary choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
But for many Republican voters,
it's also a binary choice,
Trump or not Trump. And I think that you're going
to see that play out throughout the rest of the
year.
Yeah. It can't be overstated the importance of his former
vice president saying he won't endorse him.
Let's see if Nikki Haley,
his last remaining Republican rival,
does the same. MSNBC contributor.
Charlie Sykes, thank you as always.
We will speak to you again soon.