The interest brings Trump's huge fine in the fraud case to $454 million

This came in an official announcement published by the court in New York on Friday. Trump now has 30 days to appeal the ruling. However, in order to do so, the former President of the United States must pay the fine or arrange a bond. The prosecutor in the case, Letitia James, warned Trump that as long as he did not pay, the interest amount would continue to rise every day.

Trump was ordered to pay the fine because he systematically lied to his children and several co-managers for years about the value of Trump's real estate empire. According to James, Trump and his co-defendants were found guilty of “lying, cheating, and violating the rules that apply to all of us.”

By inflating values, Trump obtained better loan terms. The trial cited blatant examples of Trump's false estimates. Trump's private apartment on the top three floors of Manhattan's famous Trump Tower is 30,000 square feet (2,787 square metres) according to Trump's books, but in reality it is only 1,000 square meters (11,000 square feet).

Can Trump pay?

The big question is whether Trump will be able to pay the fine immediately. A significant portion of the billionaire and former president's capital is tied to real estate. New York times He quotes a statement Trump made ten months ago, in which he bragged under oath that he had “a lot of money” and that it was “growing exponentially every month.”

The reality seems less rosy. Attorney General James estimated Trump's cash on hand for 2020 at $100 million, which would not be enough to pay this new fine. Furthermore, in another case, Trump was recently ordered to pay $83.3 million to writer E.B. Jane Carroll for defamation.