The way the rest of Donald Trump's life will pan out will be in play in New York City on Monday when, as the New York Times' Maggie Haberman put it, the former president will be forced to deal with his "greatest and longest-held fears."
At issue for the former president will be a decision in a Manhattan courtroom on when to proceed with a trial where he faces 34 charges of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg while at the same time the clock is running out on his attempts to come up with a nearly half-billion dollar appeals bond related to his conviction on financial fraud charges
According to the Times' Haberman and Ben Protess, if there are two things Trump fears, it is jail time and having his entire fortune wiped out and being viewed by the public as broke.
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With the clock ticking and no indication that the former president is getting any closer to finding a savior to back his bond that will prevent New Yor Attorney General Letitia James from quickly seizing his assets, the NYT report notes, "Unless Mr. Trump strikes an 11th-hour deal, Ms. James could freeze his bank accounts, and begin the long and complicated process of seizing some of his properties. And barring Mr. Trump’s lawyers achieving an improbable legal triumph, the judge in his criminal case could set a trial date for as soon as next month."
Calling what the former president faces on Monday "twin threats," the report adds they "crystallize two of Mr. Trump’s greatest and longest-held fears: a criminal conviction and a public perception that he does not have as much cash as he claims."
According to one longtime associate of Trump, the knowledge that the public will see him as anything less than filthy rich is one of the former president's greatest nightmares.
Former Trump casino executive Jack O’Donnell explained, "If Trump uses one thing to score the game, it has always been money. If he has more money than someone, he is winning and the other person is losing. And if someone has more money than Trump, he has the fear that someone will say he is losing to that person.”
In one candid interview in June, Trump admitted he has always dreaded facing a criminal indictment by lamenting: "Nobody wants to be indicted. I don’t care that my poll numbers went up by a lot. I don’t want to be indicted. I’ve never been indicted. I went through my whole life, now I get indicted every two months.”
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