Donald Trump using bail bondsman rings alarm bells about his finances

His finances are a revolving door of debt, I’d wager any money he gets has to be sent paying back the more dangerous of loans he has taken out.
- He's a ponzi scheme of debt?
- The American Way™
My first thought as well.
We all know he's not nearly as wealthy as he likes to pretend, but it'd be nearly impossible to live his lifestyle without at least 200,000 in available cash.
Likely he's using his so-called "genius" business brain to intentionally Welch on the debt and snag himself a cool 90% discount on his bail.
Why pay 200 when you can pay 20
- You pay 20 in cash because you get 20 in cash back if you show up to court
  If you take a loan with a bondsman, you lose a fee. 5 of the 20 is lost because you used a bondsman. Only get 15 back after you show up to court.
  You don't want to use a bondsman unless you have to
No
You lose money using a bondsman
There is a bail bond fee or premium associated with using a bondsman
This is non-refundable to trump.
If he comes up with the cash himself and cuts out the bondsman he would get all his money back from the court after showing up to court.
Bondsman gets all money back if trump shows up to court. They are not losing a penny. But making money because of the fee or premium.
Only way it would make sense is if he was really trying to skip town. Then, losing fee would be less than 10% of the bond.
- He needed to collateral the bond so unless bonder was cult maga, he put up Eric. Probably.
- He has secret service so how would a bounty hunter get to him
People in Atlanta may not know how he does business in New York and Florida.
- More like TFG doesn't know how Dog the Bounty Hunter does business.
If he doesn’t pay, he goes to jail sooooo
- He's never gone to jail before sooooo
Or he’s appealing to the morons who send him money on the regular for them to think, “oh know, he needs our funding!”

Why pay $200k when you can pay $20k and then refuse to repay the other $180k?

Because if you pay the $200k you get it back when the case is over. The $20k is gone forever.
That's assuming the judge doesn't decide you've violated the bond conditions forfeit the bond. If that happens, the bondsman's going to go after you for the full $200k in addition to what you paid though, and you still wind up $20k poorer than if you put up the full amount in the first place.
What probably happened is that he plans to use his usual delaying tactics and run the case out for several years, so his accountants decided they could earn at least 11% on the remaining $180k by the time the case is up, making it cheaper to pay the $20k up front.
- That or he's using his other favorite tactic and found a bondsman that's on the verge of going bankrupt and he's planning to stiff him and betting the guy won't have enough money to take him to court over it. That said, he could also be in financial trouble. It's been well known for a long time now that Trump pretends like his finances are MUCH better than they actually are, with him regularly bleeding money on failed ventures. There's a reason he's basically been running grifts for decades and just slapping his name on successful things run by other people instead of his own businesses. He was probably counting on using campaign funds and donations to cover his legal costs and got told he couldn't, and his usual sugar daddies aren't willing to pour money into him considering how unlikely he is to beat the current slate of charges.
  It's also interesting that he recently "sold" Mar-A-Lago, although since he "sold" it to his son the move is more likely just to protect the property if he does end up in jail. Could also be to provide him some liquidity to cover his legal costs.
- I would seriously be worried that he flees
I think there's logistical issues with paying your own bail in full. Like, the court has limited hours and may not accept wire transfers. It could be days before they can clear that kind of money and you're in jail until that time. The bondsmen already have all that ready to go with the courts so they can do it instantly.
- Except he's a "billionaire" and knew he was going to have to show up there for days, if not weeks.
- None of that explains why any bondsman would take Trump at his work lmao
The art of the deal

The bail bondsman who gave him that loan is the biggest sucker in the whole MAGA kingdom. That $180,000 will never be seen again.

Edit: Nevermind, I didn’t understand how bail works.

A bail bondsman has more legal options for going after someone than any other type of loan officer, including the use of bounty hunters.
- Imagine working as a bounty hunter going after a US President.
- Sure, but this is a pretty unprecedented situation... I doubt there are many bounty hunters who know how to deal with a secret service detail, for instance
That’s not how bail bonds works. It’s not a loan. You pay the bondsman 10%. Then the bondsman guarantees that the defendant will show up to his court dates. If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount. Bondsman often use bounty hunters to pick up defendants who haven’t shown up.
- I am not American, so it might be the phrasing that confuses me.
  But is the 10% returned to the defendant? Or that's a flat fee that the bondsman take?
  If that is the latter, then I understand why people are questioning why Trump is using a bondsman since he supposedly have the cash to cover the full bond that he will get back once he shows up.
  So either he plans to fuck off so he saved 90% of his bond, or he's having cashflow issues.
  If it's the former, then it make total sense to use a bondsman regardless of your fortune.
- It's not a loan
  It pretty much is
  https://www.sevenslegal.com/criminal-attorney/bail-bail-bonds-work/418/
  HOW BAIL BONDS WORK
  Bail bonds are similar to personal loans. After putting down a small percentage for the total amount, a bail bondsman or agent, gives you the rest of the money needed for your bail. Like a loan officer, this bail bondsman or agent is similar to the lender of a personal loan.
  As an example, if your bail is $15,000, you or a family member would be required to make a deposit of $2,000. The bail bondsman or agent would then give you the $15,000 bail needed for you to “post bail.” Most bail bond companies also will require you to provide them with some type of collateral in order to get the remaining money needed for your bail bond. Collateral is usually a deed to your house, item of jewelry, or car. This collateral is used in order to secure the bail bonds’ loan in case you don’t show up at your appointed court date, in which case you would not get your money back. After your trial is over, and you receive your money back from the court, the money is returned to bail bond company you received your bail from.
  Due to the fact that this is a financial risk the bail bondsman and bail bond company take because of this loan, they will often take additional precautions to make sure you attend all of your court dates. The bail bondsman wants to make sure his or her company receives back all the bail money it loaned you. As a result of these precautions, bail bond companies will frequently do the following:
  Prefer a relative or friend put up the necessary collateral for your bond. This is because you will then be less likely to miss a court date since your relative’s or friend’s house or property is on the line in for your bail bond. Call you before each court date in order to remind your about your upcoming trial. Require you to make periodic check-ins at their bail bond office to make sure you haven’t left town. Like most defendants, you will probably agree that these precautions are a small prices to pay in order to be able to stay out of jail while waiting for a trial date or during your trial.
- And they get their pay normally by keeping the 10% from the defendant. If the defendant skips town, they lose the other 90% unless they can locate the defendant and get them back to court.
- If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount
  I'm curious, does the bondsman actually give the court cash, or just guarantee that they will if the defendant doesn't show? And if that is the case, do they bond out more people than they actually have cash to cover, knowing that it is unlikely that they'll ever have to cover all those positions?
Trump wouldn't be the one paying it back. Unless you're implying he's going to not show up for trial.
- Unless you're implying he's going to not show up for trial.
  You really think he's "above" skipping town to avoid jail time?

Is he poor? Maybe. The question is why is he poor? He just sold Mar-a-lago to a company owned by Don Jr., alledgedly for something over $400 million.

He might be poor because he's hiding all his assets on offshore banks. If so, then the question becomes: why is he doing that?

Man, I really hope he runs. Just to see Republican faces when he abandons them and maybe a few finally realize they were conned.
- Jfc. Where have you've been? THEY WILL NEVER TURN ON HIM.
- A few, maybe. But I worry that anyone who's still on the Trump train at this point may be on it for life. They'll rationalize that he was forced out of the country by a crooked liberal conspiracy.
I'm guessing he's worried about his assets being seized once his involvement with criminal money laundering for Russian mobsters comes to light. And emoluments. And using his position as an elected official to enrich himself by having the secret service stay at his properties paying exorbitant amounts above market value. And so on.
"He's a political refugee because of Hillary's emails and the tan suit!"
Preparing to run.
- No. All rich people do. Why? Taxes.

What a stupid fucking bondsman to take that risk. Let's see you bounty him.

Wait..

I want to see Dogg the bounty hunter cap doofus McGee.

Dogg would just suck his dick and let him go.

He’s obviously not poor enough to not be able to come up with 20 grand. But if your backup plan is to flee the country, why put up any of your own money? He’s going to try to be in Moscow or some other country that won’t extradite him if it starts looking bad. He might not actually pull it off but he’s dumb enough to think he can.

My head canon for that timeline involves him being hunted down for betraying the united states, and his corpse dumped in the ocean like bin laden so that his grave site doesn’t become a place of worship for republicans.
- Saving this in case I ever have trouble getting an erection later
- That could actually be a book. I'd read it.
I believe the terms of bonds in Georgia are that 10% must be posted by the defendant. This is the absolute least of his own money he could put up and not have to sit in jail until trial.
EDIT: I'm at least partially wrong here. With a bond you're giving a percentage of your bail to a 3rd party who will in turn post the full bail amount for you. When you show up to trial, they get the bail back and pocket the percentage you paid. The only reasons you'd take bond over bail is if you can't afford the full amount, or you think you can make more money than the percentage by investing that money in something.
Still seems like this is the cheapest way for him to stay out of jail in the short term. Lord knows a bondsman's bounty hunter would have his work cut out bringing in a former president...
- I imagine if TFG was dumb enough to try to jump bail (yeah, he very well might be that dumb), the judge would simply phone the Secret Service. They're law enforcement so even if they won't arrest him themselves, when the sheriff or federal marshals call, they'll simply arrange a protection detail around Trump and the deputies and keep Trump very safe as he's arrested and hauled into custody.

Trump is just using the first rule of being rich...use other people's money.

Particularly if you think you might decide to skip out at some point.

He needs to lose his SS protections. And any other benefit the presidency provides.
- I mean I'd rather he keep the ss protection. I don't want him being martyred.
- No way. It’s not worth him getting assassinated by some lunatic. Honestly even if he’s successfully indicted he should be on house arrest. Lock his pudgy arse up but he has to be kept safe for obvious reason.
That’s not how bail bonds work. If you use a bail bondsman, you pay a non-refundable fee (10% of the bail amount) upfront.
If he had the money, he should have paid the full bail himself. That amount is fully refunded so long as he appears to court.
I think that’s correct…I’m not a bail bondsman and I’ve never used one, but I did watch Dog the Bounty Hunter once or thirty times

...or he'll just skip out on the bondsman like most of his other creditors.

Looking forward to the documentary of bounty hunters trying to catch him 😊
- That would be by far this best reality TV appearance yet.
  The ~~apprentice~~ fugitive - starring former president and felon Donald J Trump and Dog the Bounty Hunter.
  ...though Dog would almost certainly be helping teach Trump the tricks of the trade.

He's rich. First rule of being rich is never pay when you can borrow.

But this isn't the same kind of thing. When the court sets bail, you give them that amount as like a deposit. When you show up to court, you get it back. Lots of people don't have the cash though, so they go to a ball bondsman, give them 10% of the total amount, and the bondsman pays the court the whole amount. When you show up to court, the bondsman gets that amount back, and they keep your 10%.
So yes, it's a loan, but it's a really shitty loan. I can't see how he wouldn't be better off just paying the full amount himself unless he thinks he can successfully skip town.
- Completely agree with you, however if trump thought he would get more than 20k in returns on the 180k in principle he saved, this also is a good financial play.
  That said, 200k is petty cash for a billionaire. Or should be, if one was.
- Depending on how long it is until hed get the deposit back, they money may be better off invested.
  I don't know the schedule, but I think it's supposed to be expedited because of the upcoming election. But if Trump is successful in stalling it, who knows how long that money would be tied up.
  IMO he's probably planning on playing games and no showing, but it may make sense financially too depending on their plan
Not exactly. Rich people pay cash when doing so avoids fees. It would only make financial sense if bail bonds in Georgia go for below market rates.
If he could have paid bail through a PAC or one of his companies, that would most probably be cheaper.
He likely doesn't have $200K to his personal name (to avoid tax) and is probably not allowed to pay bail from his PAC or company.
- Rich people take loans when the loan is cheaper than an investment. If he can borrow at 10% and has money making. 12% there's no reason not to take the loan. Rich people almost never use cash and they have very few cash in hand
Except when you give 10% to the bail bondsman, you don't get that money back.
- That's the point -- 10% as opposed to 100%
- it was probably money suckered from some of his followers
Seriously this. Or if the borrowing rate is less than what you can make in the mean time by keeping it, why would you?
This isn't borrowing. This is paying.

Do we even know for sure any money changed hands? Maybe the bail bonds person is a cult 45 member and sees it as service to the dear leader? Admittedly, my bail bonds knowledge is limited to late night cheesy commercials and an episode and a half of dog the bounty hunter, but I got the impression they're something of a shady character; someone who'd be at home in the cult. No?

I'm pretty sure it's a cult member, you might be right.

Wow can’t believe Newsweek didn’t even do their due diligence. A bail bond is not a loan. You pay a bondsman 10% and then the bail bondsman guarantees the court that you will show up on the court date. If you fail to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the full amount.

I think the point is that he paid the 10% rather than front the $200k out of his own pocket. The 10% he doesn’t get back since he used a bail bondsman, but he would have gotten the full $200k back when he showed up in court had he used his own money.
- So either he's gonna need that 200k in Russia and won't be getting it back because he won't be showing up in court, he doesn't care about a 20k deposit and doesn't mind losing it, or he doesn't have enough money to pay the 200k and needed a better deal. I'm betting on option 3 but option 1 is a possibility.
- I'm wondering if his entire life just runs on lines of credit and he never really has any cash on hand. If that's the case, he's such a poor credit risk, he might be paying close to 10% interest on his credit anyway, so a bond that he only has to pay 10% on and might last more than a year may actually save him money if he would have had to draw on a line of credit for the $200K.

ITT: So, so many people not understanding bail, or bail bondsmen.

Mind expand a bit on that, please, then?
- Bail is essentially the court saying “give us this money, and when you show up for court you will get that money back.”
  A bail bondsmen takes 10% as payment, giving the court the bail money. They will go so far as to hire bounty hunters to hunt you down, making sure you show up to court. When the court gives back the bail, they get to keep both the bail money (obviously) but also the 10% payment.
  There’s no loan involved, the bail is more of a hold, and the bond is more of a payment. Trump isn’t paying less, he is literally paying a 10% bond to not have the full bail held. (Though it could be argued that the $180k could be used to make back the $20k but that’s a different discussion.) The bondsman has already received payment, there’s no concern of non payment by Trump.
I upvote you..

he doesn't intend to pay any of it back.

Or he intends to flee if things are looking bad.
- He openly said at a rally last week or so that he, "hates living in America," and would rather live in France.
  I maintain he said France because he couldn't say Russia, and he couldn't remember another allied countries name at the time
The entire job of Bail bondsmen is to know how to get people to pay back, including breaking legs
- Haha I made this comment expecting this kind of response and I am really ok with anything t Bondsmen need to do to get their money back in this instance

Speaking of “tied up in property”: he sold Mar a Lago to DJT Jr. the other day.
- Zillow amends 'incorrect' listing amid Mar-a-Lago sale rumors.
Definitely makes sense to do this via a loan so your cash isn’t tied up. I would like to know if there’s any reason to use bail bondsman over some other method.
- Less paper work since the bondsman handles it. it’s also cheaper but you don’t get the money back when the court case is over. Which you do when you pay bail directly. This is how bail bondsman make money. You pay them 10%-20% they pay off bail and then they get that bail money back or they simply give the judge a guarantee that you show up. They will also hound your ass if you fail to show in court and send a bounty hunter to find you. Since if the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the full amount.
Personally? I think he had all his resources tied up and isn’t very liquid right now.
It's currently hard to sell Rubles.

Lock Him Up

He’s never going to stop committing crimes

Hilary must be laughing her ass off.

Even if it blew up in their face, I could see a non-sycophant reason for supplying Trump a bond, potentially with sweetheart terms: it would be the ultimate marketing coup within the industry. "We bailed out the highest profile defendant in American history, sure we can help you with your sixth DUI of the week!"

Any bondsman stupid enough to lend this clown money deserves to lose it when Trump inevitablely refuses to pay it back.

That’s how he got so rich, spending the bare minimum amount of money he can on anything in any situation.

It was actually from having hundreds of million dollars handed to him by his father, but sure, ripping people off and being stingy hasn’t hurt. Being good at business would have been a good move though.
- he bankrupted a casino, ffs, and his followers thik he's a smart businessman.
- Okay, so he isn't capable of being good at business. Would you settle for a book claiming he is good at business?
Using a bail bondsman is the exact opposite of spending the bare minimum. It's basically the equivalent of taking out a payday loan at a check cashing store.

I read he's paying about 2 million a month for legal fees. He only just stopped campaigning recently, too. I wouldn't say he's broke so soon.

Edit: Right his PAC is paying for them sorry

Why not. My understanding is none of his businesses are profitable. His grifting is meant to be to pay back debts. None of his actions have ever spelled out liquid rich person. Lawyers and others now want to be paid in advance as he is known to not pay debts.
- Liquid rich person - "Drink the rich!"
- Didn't he just sell mar a Lago as well?
- You're giving him too much credit in assuming he pays his debts.
- Most of his estate is in real estate in Manhattan and Las Vegas. So yeah, not at all liquid rich.
Except he isn't the one paying those legal fees. They're being covered by political donors through one of his PACs
He definitely hasn't stopped campaigning.

Bail bondsmen are notoriously corrupt, so this tracks

If he skips town and leaves the country, it's not his money that's gone. He's already the sort who will live with paranoid levels of security so some bail bondsman bounty hunter trying to bring him in is hardly a concern.

This week on Dog the Bounty Hunter:

Try to overthrow democracy in the US? Just $200k bail.

I always remember a line Quark said in ds9. A fine just means legal for a price. (I realise a fine a bail aren't the same thing.)
While I would very much like to see him stripped of every cent, bail isn't really supposed to be a punishment, it's just insurance that they're going to show up to court.
At least in theory it should be a matter of how much of a flight risk the person is.
The court holds onto some of their money and as long as they show up they get it back.
Someone facing decades to life in prison or the death penalty is more likely to not show up for court and try to run than someone who's just looking at a few months or some fines, so the bail is higher. Someone with a history of trying to skip bail or has otherwise given the court reason to think that they might would get higher bail than someone who has never given a reason for anyone to think that they won't show up, etc.
And in some cases, other factors like income and mental health can also be taken into account to various extents depending on local laws, the judge's discretion, etc.
Now of course that's the theory, in practice just about every aspect of our justice system is incredibly fucked up.
Just to spitball a few thoughts about Trump's situation as I would look at it
Being accused of various crimes related to trying to overthrow the government means the possibility should considered that this may be someone who has little to no regard for the rule of law, and may even be colluding with foreign powers and so may try to flee to another unfriendly country, making him a very significant flight risk.
On the other hand, this is a former president, and major figure in the media. Anyone who cares to can pretty much follow his every move. Hell, it's Trump, there's a very real chance that he wouldn't be able to resist tweeting out his escape plan the night before. It would be nearly impossible for him to flee without someone knowing about it, maybe even one of his closest co-conspirators hoping to earn a bit of leniency for ratting him out. He's also probably one of the most recognizable humans on earth right now, anywhere he goes someone would recognize him, he'd never really be able to show his face in public again.
He also at least claims to be fabulously wealthy, he could potentially afford to put up many thousands, maybe even millions in bail and barely notice it was gone. If his actually wealth is even half as much as he likes to claim, he could shrug off a couple of million and still be set for life, especially at his age.
So setting an appropriate bail amount for someone like him is a bit complicated.
Personally with a situation as seriously and given that Trump should certainly be able to afford it, I'd tend to agree that the ammount should be far higher, but I also don't know what the laws and guidelines look like in GA and ultimately they have to keep to whatever those rules are.

This is nothing new for Trump, why pay the bill when someone else will pony up for him? He has a long history of not paying bills and using legal loopholes to get out of settling private debts. You can't do that with the state, but you can do that with a commercial business. While he's clearly not worth the amount he claims he is, there is no doubt in my mind that the amount he's still siphoning off of his base will cover all his legal expenses.

As much as conservative voters and talking heads say they hate Socialism, they sure do love being the social safety net of the rich.

Simply based off of his track history of not paying his debts I wouldn't take on a single contract or loan with this person. We have a local business owner who doesn't pay his contractors. It's well known locally so he always has to hire out of county to get work done because everyone knows he will screw you over. Trump is no different.
- You're absolutely right but Trump or someone working on his behalf clearly is getting people to offer their services, in spite of his reputation of not paying out significant bills for services he clearly received. How he's getting these services is beyond me, perhaps some under the table or side deals offered as a sweetener upfront, or maybe in private he's actually a smooth an elegant talker? I doubt it but I've never been in the same room as him or his business associates, so at this point anything is possible.

I bet this is money laundering/bribery kind of scheme. Some actual billionaire likely told the bondsman they would cover the bond regardless, they tell trump it's covered, trump does whatever the fuck he wants, and the billionaire buys the favor.

I'm telling you, look into the bondsman - that POS probably just got his boat or mortgage unexpectedly paid off.

His private jet (a Boeing 757) that flew him from Palm Beach to Atlanta for his booking....costs $15k to $18k per hour to operate, and it's a 2-hour flight each way (not counting warmup, taxi, and idle time waiting to takeoff). He basically dropped $60k+ for that flight. It doesn't make sense that he'd need the services of a bail bondsman when he's dropping $60k for plane rides, or maybe his campaign funds are paying to operate that jet - I wouldn't be surprised.

Someone else is paying it...?

He sold Mar-a-Lago. apparently he's scraping together his money to leave the country.

He didn't sell it. He transferred it to his son as a "sale", probably to protect his assets from seizure
Saw that going around. It has been debunked though.
- He didn't sell it to Don Jr?

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Donald Trump reportedly used a bail bondsman after being arrested at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, paying $20,000 of his bond set at $200,000 and taking out a loan for the rest of it.

Trump voluntarily turned himself in at the Georgia jail where he was booked on 13 felony counts linked to his alleged efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election in the state.

Trump and 18 co-defendants, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, are accused of conspiring together in the same election plot, according to the indictment released earlier this month.

"It's also unusual for a billionaire to post a bond in cash as he did in the E. Jean Carroll's case instead of getting a commercial insurance company to do it for him, and he couldn't do it there," Rubin said.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that Trump's campaign finances were strained as the former president was dedicating tens of millions of dollars towards his legal defense.

On his campaign website, Trump asks his supporters for a "contribution to evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House and SAVE AMERICA."

The original article contains 661 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Trump never took a loan he intended to pay back. Why start now?

You need to have a loan if you're not going to pay it back.