Who saw this coming?
The minute Donald Trump began rumbling about changing the leadership of the Republican National Committee, the conflicts of interest and motivation for the change became apparent. Trump wanted more control over the RNC both because a) he cannot stand to see a single dime spent talking about any other Republican other than Donald Trump and because b) any Republican cash is Donald Trump cash that can be used for his legal bills.
Now, his designated replacement RNC chair and daughter-in-law Lara Trump is saying the inside words outside:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lara-trump-says-rnc-needs-raise-500-mln-does-not-rule-out-paying-trump-legal-2024-02-22/Lara Trump, who Donald Trump has endorsed to be the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday that the organization needed to raise $500 million for the 2024 general election and did not rule out using raised funds to pay her father-in-law's mounting legal fees.
Warning that the Democratic Party was flush with cash, Trump's daughter-in-law said the party needed a strong fundraising push to help Trump in his bid to return to the White House and for congressional races also up for grabs.
Let's do some math. Trump has four different criminal cases pending (the "Stormy" indictment, the national security documents indictment, the Georgia racketeering indictment and the January 6 indictment) and three civil trials (defamation #1, defamation #2, NYS business records). The three civil trials have progressed the furthest with the most actual courtroom activity and Trump spent over $50,000,000 in a single year on legal fees. As the others reach more critical phases, expenses for those cases will skyrocket as well. A little 8th grade algebra can help estimate his future legal bills by extrapolating from his current legal bills.
- assume lowest burn rate is a pending civil case
- assume active civil case in trial is 2x pendingcivil
- assume pendingcriminal case is 1.5x pendingcivil
- assume activecriminal case is 2x activecivil
Trump spent $50,000,000 on 3 active civil cases and 4 pending criminal cases in 2023. That allows a rough estimate of the basic burn rate that can cascade through these complexity multipliers.
$50M = (4 x pendingcriminal) + (3 x activecivil)
= (4 x 1.5 x pendingcivil) + (3 x 2 x pendingcivil)
= 6 x pendingcivil + 6 x pendingcivil = 12 x pendingcivil
Thus
pendingcivil burn = $50 M / 12 = $4,166,667
He is heading into a period where his appeals on the civil losses will be active AND at least two of the criminal cases might be active over the next six months.
burn = ( 3 x activecivil) + (2 x activecriminal) + (2 x pendingcriminal)
= ( 3 x 2 x pendingcivil) + (2 x 2 x activecivil) + (2 x 1.5 x pendingcivil)
= ( 6 x pendingcivil) + (4 x 2 x pendingcivil) + ( 3 x pendingcivil)
= 17 x pending civil = 17 x $4,166,667 = $70,833,333
If all four of the criminal trials become "active" in the same period,
burn = ( 3 x activecivil) + (4 x activecriminal)
= ( 3 x 2 x pendingcivil) + (4 x 2 x activecivil)
= ( 6 x pendingcivil) + (8 x 2 x pendingcivil)
= 22 x pending civil = 22 x $4,166,667 = $91,666,674
This doesn't include the accruing interest on the $5 million dollar defamation judgement, the $83 million dollar defamation judgement or the $355 million dollar civil fraud judgement, which are accruing interest at NINE PERCENT per year. He has zero chance to win an appeal on those judgements so continuing to litigate them only racks up more in interest charges prior to final settlement. That interest is $39,870,000 per year.
If you believe this math, that's over $130,000,000 in legal bills and INTEREST on civil penalty costs in one year.
These are very crude numbers but they point out the STAGGERING cash flow required to continue the multiple legal charades in play throughout the entire judiciary to defend Trump. They also highlight the STAGGERING conflict of interest between any individual in the predicament to NEED this much legal counsel and the supposed interests of politicians claiming to operate within a political party who have surrendered that party to the will of one person.
This story is newsworthy on two fronts.
First, it strongly suggests that any national Republican fundraising will be essentially confiscated by Trump for promoting himself or covering his legal bills. Having the vast majority of national party dollars absorbed by Trump will cripple Republican campaign efforts for House and Senate in swing states which could return control of both branches of Congress to Democrats, even if Trump was able to somehow win. It seems pretty clear that the Republican zombies who have sworn off any independent thought are clueless about this dynamic and its impact on ALL Republican candidates.
Second, the possibility that national party funds would be absconded by the de facto party head for use in paying legal bills related to PERSONAL crimes and torts having NOTHING TO DO with running for office should be a wakeup call to everyone. This plan on the part of Trump is a new model for organized crime. It's essentially crowd-sourced racketeering. Raising tens / hundreds of millions of dollars and using the loot to fund defenses against prior crimes while remaining out of jail to commit dozens more while clogging up the entire judicial system all the way up to a corrupt Supreme Court. It's the hip new model for organized crime. It's (open source) + (flash mob) + (online commerce). It's https://gofundmycrimespree.com
WTH
