Donald Trump's growing debt from fraud trial passes eye-popping milestone
Donald Trump's fine in the New York fraud trial was over $355 million — but it's growing by more than $100,000 in interest every day.
The Associated Press calculated Trump's fines, with its estimation being that the ex-president was required to pay $87,502 in interest per day until Feb. 23, which totaled about $612,514. The interest rate is set at 9 percent.
On Feb. 23, Judge Arthur Engoron reassessed the fine to include interest that had already accumulated. The new total was $454 million. The interest payments are now 9 percent of that amount — or $111,984 each day.
Newsweek explained that it now adds up to an additional $559,920 just in the past week. As of Tuesday, that's more than $1.1 million in interest.
Trump has 30 days to pay his fine or, at the very least, put up a bond — usually 20 percent of the total — while he files an appeal. To officially file the appeal, however, he must put up the cash first.
Finding someone willing to bond Trump, however, could be a challenge. According to the verdict, he's not allowed to get a loan from any bank that does business in New York.
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He's also got a collections problem for any bail bonds company willing to put up nearly half a billion dollars. If Trump doesn't pay, how do they collect from a former president — or possibly a current one after November?
Communities around the country have come up against the problem of having Trump repay them for mounting security costs where they footed the bill for Trump to have police managing his campaign events. In one case, his campaign was sent to collections.
Trump also has fines from the E. Jean Carroll judgment, at which a jury hit Trump with $83.3 million in damages. There was an additional $5 million from the first Carroll defamation trial.