For Trump, Friday’s verdict is not just business.
It’s personal.
“It will wear at him psychologically,” one Trump
biographer and critic of him said.
By MERIDITH
MCGRAW
02/16/2024
05:43 PM EST
Donald
Trump has faced no shortage of legal peril since leaving office.
But few
cases have mattered more to him on a personal level than the civil fraud trial
over his business practices in New York, according to those who know the former
president. Trump has publicly fumed over the low valuation of his oceanfront
Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, and made a point to show up in person to defend
himself in court. And few verdicts could affect his carefully cultivated
reputation as a businessperson more than the one issued in that trial on
Friday, in which the former president was hit with over $350 million in
penalties by a judge for falsely inflating his net worth to get more favorable
rates from banks and insurers.
“This was a
namesake company that he built from the ground up when he was starting his
career, and that came to define his life before he even became president and
before he even became a television star,” a person close to Trump, who has
discussed the case with him, said. “This is what he’s always wanted to do. It’s
the family business. He’s trying to defend all of that.”
Speaking
from the steps of Mar-a-lago on Friday evening, Trump vowed to appeal the
ruling and called Justice Arthur Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia
James “corrupt.”
“If I
weren’t running, none of this stuff would have ever happened, none of these
lawsuits would have ever happened. I would have had a nice life,” Trump said.
“They’re using this as weaponization against a political opponent.”
The judge
also imposed a three year ban on Trump serving any roles in his New York-based
company, and put similar two-year bans on his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump
Jr., both senior executives in the Trump Organization, from running the company
and fined them each $4 million.
But the
harm from that verdict cannot be measured solely in dollar signs and business
transactions.
For
decades, Trump has cast himself as a successful businessperson, even as he
sometimes struggled to keep his company afloat. From his NBC show, “The
Apprentice,” to his series of books on getting rich, cutting deals and thinking
“like a billionaire,” Trump marketed himself as the savviest of tycoons to the
American masses.
Trump is
worth billions, according to estimates from Forbes and Bloomberg, with much of
his wealth wrapped up in his New York City real estate portfolio, hotels, golf
resorts and clubs. While there’s been endless speculation about the validity of
those estimates, experts still believe he will be able to afford the damages
and fines, although has pledged to appeal it and is likely to delay any payment
until he has exhausted all legal options.
But the
verdict itself is a reputational hit, denting the perception that the Trump
Organization is anything but a shining success. And it matters on a personal
level to Trump, too. Not only does he see this as part of a “witch hunt” that
wants to destroy his political future, but he also is invested in handing off a
solid company to his children, who now run it.
“He views
these judgments as a kind of existential threat to his entire brand,” said Tim
O’Brien, a Trump biographer turned critic. “It will wear at him
psychologically.”
A Trump
ally declined to engage in the psychological effect the verdict might have on
him. While they have no doubts Trump — who has worn his aggravation about the
case on his sleeve during court appearances — will be angry about the outcome,
the person described it as “obviously political” and unlikely to shift public
opinion.
“I don’t
think this will have any effect on anything moving forward. It will just
reinforce the feelings of those who already hate him, and for the people who
love him it will reinforce that the system is corrupt and out to get him,” the
person said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and only addressed the
political impact the ruling would have.
The last
time Trump found himself facing serious financial losses was in the early
1990s, when his entire real estate empire was at risk of falling apart under
over $3 billion in debt.
“It was the
most devastating experience of his life. He was going through divorces,
everything was falling around him. He became sullen, combative, pouty and I
think it was not an era he’s ever wanted to revisit, though circumstances creep
up on him again because he’s a debt monster and can’t help himself,” O’Brien
said, “Judgments like this are scary because they bring back echoes of the
early 1990s.”
But Trump,
ever the marketer, turned those early ‘90s setbacks around, recasting himself
as a television personality and reestablishing his brand as a business savant.
He then
branched out further, entering politics. And, as a politician, he used those
marketing skills to turn the legal judgments against him into campaign rallying
cries. Trump has claimed that the justice system is rigged and his supporters
have, largely, been convinced.
“He’s
frustrated for being a target, and he’s frustrated for what it means. This is
an escalation we’ve never gone through in this country, where we weaponize the
courts to go to an extreme after somebody,” said Bryan Lanza, who worked on
Trump’s 2016 campaign and remains close to his current team.
Even though
Trump sees a spike in polling and fundraising after major legal moments, his
advisers do not view any of these court cases as entirely helpful. They pull
Trump off the campaign trail and distract from their political message.
But,
increasingly, Trump’s legal problems and campaign have become one and the same.
And as the former president emerged from Friday’s verdict, it was clear that
there were personal elements intertwined too.
“I helped
New York City during its worst of times,” read part of Trump’s statement, “and
now, while it is overrun with Violent Biden Migrant Crime, the Radicals are
doing all they can to kick me out.”
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