by In the space of a few weeks, Donald Trump was hit with two huge penalties from two civil trials in New York – $83m for defamation against writer E Jean Carroll and $354.9m for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements.
The combined verdicts will cost him about $438m, and that’s just a fraction of what Trump could have on the many lawsuits. The payments are likely to make a big dent in their wallet. The Bloomberg billionaires list estimated Trump’s net worth in 2021 at around $2.3bn, meaning those two rulings alone could account for nearly a fifth of Trump’s net worth.
Related: Donald Trump ordered $83.3m to be paid to E Jean Carroll in defamation trial
Trump’s finances have been notoriously opaque, especially because the Trump Organization is a private business, meaning it doesn’t have to file public financial reports. But here’s what we know about how much Trump has to pay and how it will affect his finances.
It all depends on the appeals
Trump is likely to appeal both cases, and the results could affect how much he owes. It is not clear how long the appeals will take. For reference, an appeals court has yet to rule on a May 2023 ruling on the separate Carroll case that found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation. Trump was ordered to pay $5m in damages in that case.
Also, the appeals court is technically considering two appeals stemming from Trump’s fraud trial. The first appeal followed a September pretrial ruling that Trump was guilty of fraud, ordering the termination of his business licenses. The second appeal concerns the penalty that New York judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay after the trial that lasted for months. It is not clear whether the appeals court will decide the two appeals together or separately, but it is likely to be at least a few months before any decision is announced.
Trump’s bankruptcy is unlikely
Although $438m is not a small sum, Trump is rich. Trump ally Rudy Giuliani declared bankruptcy after a jury ordered him to pay $148m to two election workers in Georgia; The former mayor of New York has announced that he is worth between $100m and $500m and has assets between $1m and $10m.
To declare bankruptcy, Trump would have to prove that the verdict is more important than his assets, which is highly unlikely.
During a deposition with prosecutors for the fraud trial in April 2023, Trump said he had more than $400m in cash. Last year, however, Forbes reported that Trump had since invested most of his money in bonds and funds of funds, while keeping a small portion in stocks and mutual funds. After his guilty verdict, Trump will likely have to sell many of those investments.
Whether Trump will touch anything in his real estate portfolio is a big question. Trump has gotten a boost from selling his properties before: he sold his golf club in the Bronx last year, and in 2022, he completed the sale of the Old Post Office building in Washington DC, which was converted into a hotel. Court documents showed the sale of the Old Post Office fetched $131.4m before taxes, according to the New York Times.
It will be a tough decision for a man who, just a few years ago, claimed to be worth $10bn. This pride in his wealth has been used against him recently. In closing arguments in Carroll’s trial in January, his lawyers told the jury that they should punish him with higher damages precisely because he claims he is so wealthy.
“A billionaire like Donald Trump could pay a million dollars a day for 10 years and still have money left in the bank,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, told the jury on January 26. “It will take an unusually high punitive damages award to hope to stop Donald Trump.”
Trump will still have to pay the court, even as appeals proceed
While Trump is awaiting multiple appeals decisions, he will have to give the court the money to hold onto it. If Trump wins any of his appeals, he can get his money back.
Trump has a few options when it comes to paying the court. He could now pay everything he owed in cash. Or he could try to get an appeal bond, which would mean he wouldn’t have to pay all the money up front in exchange for a premium and putting up collateral.
In his May 2023 Carroll case, Trump set aside the $5m he owed in cash, saving him about $55,500 in bond premiums. While Trump might prefer to pay the verdicts in cash, it’s unclear if he has enough on hand to avoid bond this time.
Trump has rich campaign cash, but spending it on personal legal expenses will be complicated
Trump has been diligently fundraising for his legal troubles, likely because he has significant legal fees for his two civil and four criminal trials.
It is not clear what Trump can pay to use his campaign money. Federal law prohibits candidates from using campaign funds for personal use, making it unlikely that Trump can use campaign funds to help pay a portion of Carroll’s award and fraud penalty.
But Trump has refrained from using campaign funds for some of his trials. The Associated Press reported in October that Trump’s Save America (Pac) political action committee had paid $37m in legal fees, more than half of the PAC’s total spending.
And the money keeps flowing in. Trump was the Republican candidate who received the most donations last fall, raising $45.5m in the third quarter. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the race in January, raised the second most, taking in about $30m.
