The $91.6 million bond that Donald Trump posted in federal court Monday raises troubling new questions about the presumptive Republican nominee’s fitness to serve again as president.
Among them: How might Trump’s debts influence his actions as president? Who might exert leverage over him? Would he look the other way at wrongful acts by his creditors? How could national security decisions be influenced by his being deeply in debt to a foreign company?
Interest alone will cost Trump millions more if his appeal lasts more than a month or so.
Those concerns will only be magnified if, as expected, Trump posts a much larger bond while he appeals the $454 million judgment that New York State obtained after proving during a seven-week trial that Trump engaged in persistent financial fraud. Interest alone will cost Trump millions more if his appeal lasts more than a month or so.
Andrew Weismann, the former FBI general counsel (who is also an MSNBC legal analyst) neatly summarized the problem on X: “The public has no idea who may have actually put up the money or provided a guaranty to support the bond. But one thing’s sure: Trump is beholden to someone for a lot of money.”
A politician owing a multi-million dollar fortune to anyone is a potential national security nightmare.
In this regard, what should concern us all are Trump’s many — and false — declarations that our Constitution gives each president unlimited powers, including the power to murder and commit other crimes with impunity. And there’s his admiration for dictators, which he has said he will become, but only for his first day in office.
The someone Trump owes for the $91.6 million bond in the second defamation case won by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll is Chubb, a giant Swiss insurance company that operates in 54 countries.
Chubb may well become the source of the much larger bond Trump needs in the New York state fraud case, since using the same insurer would make negotiations and dealing with existing obligations much simpler.
To avoid seizure of his cash and other assets in the persistent fraud case, Trump has less than two weeks to pay the Empire State the full damages plus interest in cash or post a bond for the full amount plus some additional money to cover future interest, which accrues daily. March 25 is the deadline.
On March 5, Trump boasted that he could easily produce the money in the New York state fraud case, which he calls baseless. This came after his lawyers said raising that much cash, more than $530 million in the two cases, would be impossible unless Trump could borrow against his assets.
The terms on which Trump arranged the bond, which is a form of a loan, from Federal Insurance Company, an arm of Chubb, are a mystery.
For example, what property did Trump pledge as security? What concessions, if any, did Trump obtain from existing lenders, some of whom require Trump to maintain certain levels of cash and to be current on all obligations? What rights does Chubb have to enforce payment from Trump? What happens if Trump becomes president again and refuses to pay, especially if he assumes his promised dictatorial powers? Why would Chubb make a large and risky loan to a man indicted on 91 felony counts in four cases and who is being sued by many others, including U.S. Capitol police officers injured when Trump tried to overthrow our government three years ago?
The framers of our Constitution took care to ensure that presidents would be independent of outside influence, foreign and domestic, through the emoluments clauses, which I teach my students at Syracuse University College of Law. But the Founding Fathers’ concern was with income, not debts, leaving a loophole that if Trump regains office would almost certainly become a national security nightmare.
No one in 1787 imagined that an American president would owe more than a half-billion dollars in damage awards, with more cases pending, to a company with global business interests. Even if measured in 1787 currency, this prospect surely would have caused James Madison and the other architects of our Constitution to endure many sleepless nights.
It should vex you, too.
CLARIFICATION (March 14, 2024, 10:06 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article referred to Chubb’s current relationship with three insurance companies in Russia. After the invasion of Ukraine, the company said it ceased management control of the companies and does not still own them. The article has been updated.