Trump launches gold high top sneaker line a day
after $350m court ruling
‘Never Surrender High-Tops’ cost $399 and arrive on
the market just after judge hands former US president huge penalty
Guardian
staff and agencies
Sun 18 Feb
2024 03.13 GMT
Donald
Trump has launched his own sneaker brand, a day after a New York judge ordered
him to pay $354.9m in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to
dupe lenders.
“I’ve
wanted to do this a long time,” the former US president said, as he unveiled
what he called the first official Trump footwear at Sneaker Con in
Philadelphia, a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show
on Earth.”
He was met
with loud boos as well as cheers, Associated Press reported, adding that as he
spoke, the smell of weed occasionally wafted through the room. Attendees skewed
younger and more diverse than Trump’s usual rally crowds, the news wire wrote.
The shoes,
shiny, gold high tops with an American flag detail on the back, are being sold
as Never Surrender High-Tops for $399 on a new website that also sells
Trump-branded Victory47 cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle. Trump would be
the 47th president if elected again.
The website
says it has no connection to Trump’s campaign, though Trump campaign officials
promoted the appearance in online posts.
Trump later
lashed out at Justice Arthur Engoron, who on Friday ordered him as well as his
eldest sons and associates to pay over $354.9m plus pre-judgment interest after
finding them guilty of intentionally committing financial fraud over the course
of a decade.
Addressing
supporters for the first time since the ruling, the frontrunner for the
Republican White House nomination told thousands of supporters at a campaign
rally in Michigan the decision was an “election interference ploy”.
He made the
unsubstantiated claim that the judge was part of a “left wing” conspiracy aimed
at stopping him from becoming president again, adding that “these repulsive
abuses of power are not just an attack on me, they are an attack on all
Americans”.
Trump also
repeated his lie that his 2020 election defeat to Democratic US President Joe
Biden was due to election fraud.
Engoron
also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York
corporation for three years. The judge said of Trump and his co-defendants:
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”
New York
attorney general Letitia James had accused Trump and his family businesses of
overstating his net worth by as much $3.6bn a year over a decade to fool
bankers into giving him better loan terms.
Trump also
faces four state and federal criminal trials, including one scheduled to start
in New York on 25 March, over alleged hush money payments to a porn star. That
means Trump will become the first former US president to stand trial on
criminal charges.
Trump spoke
shortly after Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican
presidential nomination, who held an event in South Carolina.
On Saturday
morning, Haley wasted no time in going after Trump after Friday’s ruling.
Haley
frequently says “chaos” follows Trump, and that he can’t be an effective
president or candidate because of his myriad legal problems.
“He’s going
to be in court March and April. He’s going to be in court May and June. He said
himself that he’s going to be spending more time in a courtroom than he is on
the campaign trail,” Haley told Fox News.
Trump is
close to clinching the Republican presidential nomination, and the prospect of
a likely general election rematch with Biden, after recent nominating contest
wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Haley, who
has no clear path to the Republican nomination, has refused to quit. She is
making a potential last stand in her home state of South Carolina, which holds
its primary on 24 February, where she trails badly in opinion polls behind
Trump.
At her
rally on Saturday evening, Haley also attacked Trump for his failure to comment
on the death of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader. At
his Michigan rally, Trump again failed to mention Navalny.
Russia’s
prison service said that Navalny, 47, died on Friday at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic
penal colony. The west, including Biden, blamed Russian president Vladimir
Putin for the death. Western leaders did not cite evidence.
Haley,
addressing a crowd in Irmo, South Carolina, accused Trump of cozying up to
Putin in the past. She also referred to a speech Trump made on 10 February,
when he said he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to
any Nato member who didn’t spend enough on defense.
“Trump is
siding with a thug who kills his own political opponents,” Haley said.
Reuters and
Associated Press contributed to this report
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