March 7, 2024 • 15 mins
Donald Trump faces four criminal trials amounting to 91 felony counts, and three civil cases. None of this has fazed his base as he runs for election. “If he was in jail, I sure would vote for him,” said Ralph Hunter, a South Carolina resident. He told the Big Take DC podcast that while he doesn’t like Trump “as a person,” he was impressed with his presidency.
Trump’s electability is intact – but his finances are another story. Today on the Big Take DC: How Trump’s legal woes are hitting his wallet and his re-election bid.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, it's Sarah. Trump and Biden's presidential campaigns are ramping up,
and people all around the world are watching not just
to see how Trump is doing on the campaign trail,
but how he's going to fare in the courtroom. Today
on The Big Take, we'll learn more about Trump on
trial in an episode of The Big Take DC hosted
by my colleague, Senior Washington correspondent Seleia Mosen. Here's Seleia.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's been about a year since the first indictment was
announced against former President Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
He's indicted.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
He's the first former president of the United States to
be indicted on.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Charges related to hush money payments paid to Stormy Daniels.
It raised a ton of questions, does.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
He get his fingerprints?
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Will there be a mugshot?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Is he going to be in handcuffs?
Speaker 7 (00:53):
And that was just the beginning breaking news on the
indictment of former President Donald trumpsified.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Doc aments founded his pone at.
Speaker 7 (01:01):
Mar Laga, rackteering, conspiracy to commit fraud to influence witnesses.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Perjury, conspiracy to obstruct injustice.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Several conspiracy charges relating to January sixth, with his wins
on Super Tuesday. Trump is cruising toward the GOP nomination
for president, but as he shifts to the general election,
he faces a mountain of legal troubles. There are so
many trial proceedings and dates, not to mention campaign rallies
(01:30):
in an election year, that I often find myself pulling
up charts that my colleagues have made just to keep
track of it all. But the logistics are only one
of the many unprecedented challenges the former president now faces
as he navigates the campaign trail while on trial. From
Bloomberg's Washington A Bureau, This is the Big Take DC podcast,
(01:51):
I'm Saleijamosen. Today we sift through Bloomberg reporting, interviews with
Trump voters, and election data to understand how Trump going
to balance a general election campaign while facing four criminal
trials and untold millions in legal bills, and will any
of this affect him at the polls. Let's cover some basics.
(02:19):
Trump is facing four criminal cases. The first indictment came
about a year ago, when the state of New York
charged the former president with falsifying business records to cover
up hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
It is simple. An American president has been indicted for
a crime. It is original American history.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yesterday afternoon. Then came a federal case in Florida accusing
Trump of refusing to return hundreds of classified documents he
was keeping at his mar Alago home. And then there
was arguably the most consequential case in Washington, d C.
The January sixth case accusing Trump of trying to overturn
in the twenty twenty election result and inciting the capital attack.
(03:04):
And lastly there's a state case in Georgia accusing Trump
of trying to overturn the results of the twenty twenty election.
There there have also been three civil trials, and Trump
has lost them all. A fraud case brought by New
York Attorney General Letitia James over his asset valuations, and
then a defamation case brought by E. G. And Carroll
for comments Trump made after she accused him of sexually
(03:27):
assaulting her in the nineties. And then another defamation case
by Carol, also alleging sexual assault under a New York
law that briefly lifted the statute of limitations on pass
assault claims. He's appealing all three Between the four criminal trials,
Trump faces a grand total of ninety one felony counts.
(03:47):
For a while, it looked like the proceedings for many
of those cases would fall on top of each other
and land right in the middle of the twenty twenty
four campaign, but that started to shift.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
What we're seeing with the league calendar is that it's
actually slowing down.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
That's my colleague, Sarah Fordon. She leads a Bloomberg team
covering the legal news coming out of Washington, d C.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
So I think we're going to have an ebb and flow.
The only trial that's actually scheduled to go forward right
now is the hush money case in New York, which
is due to start March twenty fifth. This is the
Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and it's going to be
about a month long trial. It is a criminal trial,
(04:29):
so on criminal trials he does have to be in
the courtroom, so we will expect him to be in
New York day and day out for about a month,
so that will certainly affect his movements.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The trial dates for the other three criminal cases are
still in flux and could be pushed back to after
election day, so.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
There may be, you know, several months over the summer
where there's nothing pressing on his legal calendar, and he'll
have ample time to campaign.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But even if Trump has time to campaign, these legal
battles still come with huge price tags, both for his
ca pain and his personal finances.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
The big one is a case brought by the New
York Attorney General. It is a fraud case accusing him
of inflating his assets. He has been issued a verdict
in that case of over four hundred million dollars and
the interest is accruing on that at a pace of
about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
A day, as in, for every day Trump doesn't pay
the state's verdict against him, he owes an additional one
hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
That combined with a separate verdict in a defamation trial.
This is a case brought by the author, Egene Carroll,
So she brought two separate defamation cases against him and
won both of those. And that big verdict in the
second case is eighty three point three million dollars. So
he's in the process of appealing those two, but he
will have to put that money into escrow while the
(05:53):
appeal process is playing out.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Sarah, what does it mean that he needs to put
money in escrow?
Speaker 6 (05:58):
If he ultimately loses these verdicts on appeal, he will
have to pay that money, And the way the process works,
they don't wait for him to pay until the end
of the process. He has to set aside this money
so that it's already in like a custodial account.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So with verdicts in just two of his cases, Trump
already owes over five hundred million dollars, and that number
is climbing by the day. These are civil cases brought
against Trump as a private citizen, so he can't use
campaign funds to pay the damages.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Adding up the two New York verdicts and the interest,
which is occurring at a pace that would practically wipe
out what he's declared as his liquidity his cash on hand.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Trump says that he has just about six hundred million
dollars in liquid assets, as in cash sitting in his
bank account. The Bloomberg Billionaire's Index, which also factors in
his real estate and business dealings, puts his net worth
at over three billion dollars, but accessing that money would
require liquidating those assets.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
He's already said in some files that he may have
to sell a property in order to cover these costs.
And these are costs that he cannot use campaign money
to fund.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
The hundreds of millions of dollars in damages are only
part of what Trump's court cases are costing him. He
also has to pay the lawyers who are defending him.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
For that.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He can use campaign funds, and he has, but any
money he puts toward his legal fees will mean less
money to spend on the campaign trail, and the possibility
of running out of money part way through an election
year is a huge problem for Trump.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
The last report he spent nearly three million dollars on
legal fees over what period That was just for January.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Coming up, we'll dig into how Trump is trying to
offset these costs and how this is all landing with voters' back.
So far, we've broken down the four criminal cases and
(08:03):
three civil cases against Trump, how much they're costing him,
and how he's paying for them. As my colleague Sarah
Forden mentioned, one of the biggest impacts on Trump is
the financial cost of covering damages and paying for his
legal fees. If you're running a presidential campaign. You can't
afford to run out of money midyear. If anything, you
(08:24):
want a lot of campaign money ready to go for
September and October, when voters are paying the most attention
to the race. We're seeing Trump turn to creative ways
to bring cash into his coffers. One of the big
ones is turning every indictment into an opportunity to rally
his base and then ask them for money.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Every time there's a development in one of these cases,
you see some sort of fundraising appeal go out of
You know, the evil Democrats are out to get me.
Chip in five dollars, fifteen dollars, twenty dollars or else,
You're not going to have a country anymore type message.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
That's my colleague Laura Davison, she covers Politics of Bloomberg.
We grabbed some of the fundraising texts that you described.
Here are a couple, word for word. Make a contribution
to evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House and
save America. During this dark chapter in our nation's history,
we're watching our republic die before our very eyes. The
(09:18):
Biden appointed Special Council has indicted me, and yet another
witch hunt how is that talk resonating with voters.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
We do know that his supporters see these legal woes,
you know, as evidence that Trump is being persecuted. It
doesn't really seem to dent their support. They don't see
it as a negative, and in fact they're giving We know,
indictments came down, you know, millions of dollars came into
his coffers. So these things are things that are resonating.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And he's used his indictments as a talking point on
the campaign trail, like this speech in IOI in January,
I got.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Indicted more than the late great gangster al Vos cap
Ere You are about the publish co effriends.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Our producer Julia Press spoke with Jesse Stumbaugh and attending
at the rally, who said Trump's lawsuit didn't concern him.
Speaker 8 (10:03):
In fact, that's one of the reasons why I'm voting
for him. If our former president and an American citizen who's
a billionaire is handcuffed by the political system and the
justice system, haw's a regular citizen like myself ever going
to be able to stand up to the government.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Over the last few weeks, my Bloomberg colleagues have fanned
out across the country to talk to Trump's supporters about
how they're viewing the cases against the former president. Bloomberg's
Mike Sasso spoke with James Griffin. He's a sixty four
year old from Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
They say he was in fault about them people telling
up the White House. I mean, how can I tell
a hundred people to go tell up their store over there.
If they do it, it ain't on me. That's the namind. Okay,
even if he got found guilty, either wouldn't necessarily buy
he still go be month for rent.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
In another part of South Carolina, reporter Stephanie Lyai met
Ralph Hunter. He had a different perspective.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
The problem that we see with.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
There's so and so one question that I have if
he was in jail, I was sure with both.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
He said that if Trump was convicted, he'd still vote
for him.
Speaker 7 (11:15):
I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't like him
as a person. I don't think he's someone that you know,
I would i'd want to be friends with or hang out.
You know, He's just seem like a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
But Ralph told her he was impressed by Trump's presidency.
He said he feels like Trump delivered on some of
the things that had been empty promises from other politicians
in the past. To Ralph, Trump is a guy who
gets stuff done.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
If I need a plumber from my house, the pipe,
the crap out of it, I don't necessarily need you
to be a nice guy and have wonderful post on
your Facebook account. You know, I've actually I don't care
what you say, just get the hooped out of my house.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And here's my colleague Stephanie at a Trump event in
South Carolina talking to a teacher named Debbie Sides.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
One interesting thing that we've noticed is every time another
one of these indictments comes down, more people are donating
to him or getting involved in the campaign. And I'm
curious that that's something that you had done yourself, you know,
either donated after one of these Yes, one of the
first indictments that I did, I mean twenty five dollars.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
But that's what I could do, because I feel like
I could go after him, that could go after anybody.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Trump's single largest day of fundraising for the twenty twenty
four election came the week he was arraigned in Manhattan
last April. Here's my colleague Laura Davison. Again, we do
see spikes in giving.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
You know, every time there was an indictment announced, particularly
the mugshot and the Georgia case that really went viral
on social media because it was a just this visual moment,
there was a ton of giving.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
In addition to donations, the Trump campaign is looking at
other ways of raising cash, like marketing new merchandise, a
signature cologne, candles, gold sneakers with red souls. Here he
is unveiling his four hundred dollars shoes that Trump never
surrender high tops at a sneaker convention in Philadelphia last month.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Now, this country's not doing so well. We're going to
turn this country around fast.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
We're going to turn it around fast, and we're going
to remember the young people, and we're going to remember
sneaker Cohn.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
But even Trump's shoes can't escape the possibility of litigation.
People have pointed out that the red bottoms of his
sneakers could open him up to a trademark lawsuit from
Christian Lubitan. The year ahead for Trump could be heavily
defined by the outcome of his pending criminal cases and
how he navigates them financially. He's also endorsed his daughter
(13:40):
in law, Laura Trump, to be co chair of the
Republican National Committee. That'll be determined at an RNC meeting tomorrow,
and she said that she would put the full weight
of the committee behind paying legal fees in these cases.
Those court battles, coupled with his bid to voters as
an overall candidate, could spell out a complicated year for
the former president.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
The money that he has in his various accounts that
it is able to pay for legal fees is set
to run out sometime around June July August. This is
right when both his campaign, the Republican National Committee everyone
is going to be in full on election mode, buying
a ton of television advertisements, wanting to hold events all
across the country, and Trump's going to have to make
(14:22):
a decision either does he turn to his donors and say, hey,
can you guys give me more money for my illegal fees.
Does he decide to pay for it himself, or does
he go to the RNC and ask them for money.
And the RNC also is having their own cash troubles
as well, so this is a really setting up to
be a sort of midyear money fight.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloemberg News. I'm Saliah Mosen. This episode was produced by
Julia Press and David Fox. It was edited by Aaron Edwards.
It was mixed by Ben O'Brien. It was fact checked
by Stacey Renee. Naomi Shaven is our senior producer. Michael Shepherd,
Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editorial direction. A special
(15:09):
thanks to Hadrianna Lowencron, Stephanie Lai, and Michael Sasso. Nicole
Beemsterboer is our executive producer. Stage Bauman is Bloomberg's head
of podcasts. You can find The Big Take in print too,
on the Terminal and bloomberg dot Com, featuring the very
best of Bloomberg's in depth original reporting around the globe.
Thanks for listening. Please follow and review The Big Take
(15:31):
DC wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners
find the show
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, it's Sarah. Trump and Biden's presidential campaigns are ramping up,
and people all around the world are watching not just
to see how Trump is doing on the campaign trail,
but how he's going to fare in the courtroom. Today
on The Big Take, we'll learn more about Trump on
trial in an episode of The Big Take DC hosted
by my colleague, Senior Washington correspondent Seleia Mosen. Here's Seleia.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's been about a year since the first indictment was
announced against former President Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
He's indicted.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
He's the first former president of the United States to
be indicted on.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Charges related to hush money payments paid to Stormy Daniels.
It raised a ton of questions, does.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
He get his fingerprints?
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Will there be a mugshot?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Is he going to be in handcuffs?
Speaker 7 (00:53):
And that was just the beginning breaking news on the
indictment of former President Donald trumpsified.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Doc aments founded his pone at.
Speaker 7 (01:01):
Mar Laga, rackteering, conspiracy to commit fraud to influence witnesses.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Perjury, conspiracy to obstruct injustice.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Several conspiracy charges relating to January sixth, with his wins
on Super Tuesday. Trump is cruising toward the GOP nomination
for president, but as he shifts to the general election,
he faces a mountain of legal troubles. There are so
many trial proceedings and dates, not to mention campaign rallies
(01:30):
in an election year, that I often find myself pulling
up charts that my colleagues have made just to keep
track of it all. But the logistics are only one
of the many unprecedented challenges the former president now faces
as he navigates the campaign trail while on trial. From
Bloomberg's Washington A Bureau, This is the Big Take DC podcast,
(01:51):
I'm Saleijamosen. Today we sift through Bloomberg reporting, interviews with
Trump voters, and election data to understand how Trump going
to balance a general election campaign while facing four criminal
trials and untold millions in legal bills, and will any
of this affect him at the polls. Let's cover some basics.
(02:19):
Trump is facing four criminal cases. The first indictment came
about a year ago, when the state of New York
charged the former president with falsifying business records to cover
up hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
It is simple. An American president has been indicted for
a crime. It is original American history.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yesterday afternoon. Then came a federal case in Florida accusing
Trump of refusing to return hundreds of classified documents he
was keeping at his mar Alago home. And then there
was arguably the most consequential case in Washington, d C.
The January sixth case accusing Trump of trying to overturn
in the twenty twenty election result and inciting the capital attack.
(03:04):
And lastly there's a state case in Georgia accusing Trump
of trying to overturn the results of the twenty twenty election.
There there have also been three civil trials, and Trump
has lost them all. A fraud case brought by New
York Attorney General Letitia James over his asset valuations, and
then a defamation case brought by E. G. And Carroll
for comments Trump made after she accused him of sexually
(03:27):
assaulting her in the nineties. And then another defamation case
by Carol, also alleging sexual assault under a New York
law that briefly lifted the statute of limitations on pass
assault claims. He's appealing all three Between the four criminal trials,
Trump faces a grand total of ninety one felony counts.
(03:47):
For a while, it looked like the proceedings for many
of those cases would fall on top of each other
and land right in the middle of the twenty twenty
four campaign, but that started to shift.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
What we're seeing with the league calendar is that it's
actually slowing down.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
That's my colleague, Sarah Fordon. She leads a Bloomberg team
covering the legal news coming out of Washington, d C.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
So I think we're going to have an ebb and flow.
The only trial that's actually scheduled to go forward right
now is the hush money case in New York, which
is due to start March twenty fifth. This is the
Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and it's going to be
about a month long trial. It is a criminal trial,
(04:29):
so on criminal trials he does have to be in
the courtroom, so we will expect him to be in
New York day and day out for about a month,
so that will certainly affect his movements.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The trial dates for the other three criminal cases are
still in flux and could be pushed back to after
election day, so.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
There may be, you know, several months over the summer
where there's nothing pressing on his legal calendar, and he'll
have ample time to campaign.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But even if Trump has time to campaign, these legal
battles still come with huge price tags, both for his
ca pain and his personal finances.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
The big one is a case brought by the New
York Attorney General. It is a fraud case accusing him
of inflating his assets. He has been issued a verdict
in that case of over four hundred million dollars and
the interest is accruing on that at a pace of
about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
A day, as in, for every day Trump doesn't pay
the state's verdict against him, he owes an additional one
hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
That combined with a separate verdict in a defamation trial.
This is a case brought by the author, Egene Carroll,
So she brought two separate defamation cases against him and
won both of those. And that big verdict in the
second case is eighty three point three million dollars. So
he's in the process of appealing those two, but he
will have to put that money into escrow while the
(05:53):
appeal process is playing out.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Sarah, what does it mean that he needs to put
money in escrow?
Speaker 6 (05:58):
If he ultimately loses these verdicts on appeal, he will
have to pay that money, And the way the process works,
they don't wait for him to pay until the end
of the process. He has to set aside this money
so that it's already in like a custodial account.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So with verdicts in just two of his cases, Trump
already owes over five hundred million dollars, and that number
is climbing by the day. These are civil cases brought
against Trump as a private citizen, so he can't use
campaign funds to pay the damages.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Adding up the two New York verdicts and the interest,
which is occurring at a pace that would practically wipe
out what he's declared as his liquidity his cash on hand.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Trump says that he has just about six hundred million
dollars in liquid assets, as in cash sitting in his
bank account. The Bloomberg Billionaire's Index, which also factors in
his real estate and business dealings, puts his net worth
at over three billion dollars, but accessing that money would
require liquidating those assets.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
He's already said in some files that he may have
to sell a property in order to cover these costs.
And these are costs that he cannot use campaign money
to fund.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
The hundreds of millions of dollars in damages are only
part of what Trump's court cases are costing him. He
also has to pay the lawyers who are defending him.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
For that.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He can use campaign funds, and he has, but any
money he puts toward his legal fees will mean less
money to spend on the campaign trail, and the possibility
of running out of money part way through an election
year is a huge problem for Trump.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
The last report he spent nearly three million dollars on
legal fees over what period That was just for January.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Coming up, we'll dig into how Trump is trying to
offset these costs and how this is all landing with voters' back.
So far, we've broken down the four criminal cases and
(08:03):
three civil cases against Trump, how much they're costing him,
and how he's paying for them. As my colleague Sarah
Forden mentioned, one of the biggest impacts on Trump is
the financial cost of covering damages and paying for his
legal fees. If you're running a presidential campaign. You can't
afford to run out of money midyear. If anything, you
(08:24):
want a lot of campaign money ready to go for
September and October, when voters are paying the most attention
to the race. We're seeing Trump turn to creative ways
to bring cash into his coffers. One of the big
ones is turning every indictment into an opportunity to rally
his base and then ask them for money.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Every time there's a development in one of these cases,
you see some sort of fundraising appeal go out of
You know, the evil Democrats are out to get me.
Chip in five dollars, fifteen dollars, twenty dollars or else,
You're not going to have a country anymore type message.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
That's my colleague Laura Davison, she covers Politics of Bloomberg.
We grabbed some of the fundraising texts that you described.
Here are a couple, word for word. Make a contribution
to evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House and
save America. During this dark chapter in our nation's history,
we're watching our republic die before our very eyes. The
(09:18):
Biden appointed Special Council has indicted me, and yet another
witch hunt how is that talk resonating with voters.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
We do know that his supporters see these legal woes,
you know, as evidence that Trump is being persecuted. It
doesn't really seem to dent their support. They don't see
it as a negative, and in fact they're giving We know,
indictments came down, you know, millions of dollars came into
his coffers. So these things are things that are resonating.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And he's used his indictments as a talking point on
the campaign trail, like this speech in IOI in January,
I got.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Indicted more than the late great gangster al Vos cap
Ere You are about the publish co effriends.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Our producer Julia Press spoke with Jesse Stumbaugh and attending
at the rally, who said Trump's lawsuit didn't concern him.
Speaker 8 (10:03):
In fact, that's one of the reasons why I'm voting
for him. If our former president and an American citizen who's
a billionaire is handcuffed by the political system and the
justice system, haw's a regular citizen like myself ever going
to be able to stand up to the government.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Over the last few weeks, my Bloomberg colleagues have fanned
out across the country to talk to Trump's supporters about
how they're viewing the cases against the former president. Bloomberg's
Mike Sasso spoke with James Griffin. He's a sixty four
year old from Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
They say he was in fault about them people telling
up the White House. I mean, how can I tell
a hundred people to go tell up their store over there.
If they do it, it ain't on me. That's the namind. Okay,
even if he got found guilty, either wouldn't necessarily buy
he still go be month for rent.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
In another part of South Carolina, reporter Stephanie Lyai met
Ralph Hunter. He had a different perspective.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
The problem that we see with.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
There's so and so one question that I have if
he was in jail, I was sure with both.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
He said that if Trump was convicted, he'd still vote
for him.
Speaker 7 (11:15):
I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't like him
as a person. I don't think he's someone that you know,
I would i'd want to be friends with or hang out.
You know, He's just seem like a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
But Ralph told her he was impressed by Trump's presidency.
He said he feels like Trump delivered on some of
the things that had been empty promises from other politicians
in the past. To Ralph, Trump is a guy who
gets stuff done.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
If I need a plumber from my house, the pipe,
the crap out of it, I don't necessarily need you
to be a nice guy and have wonderful post on
your Facebook account. You know, I've actually I don't care
what you say, just get the hooped out of my house.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And here's my colleague Stephanie at a Trump event in
South Carolina talking to a teacher named Debbie Sides.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
One interesting thing that we've noticed is every time another
one of these indictments comes down, more people are donating
to him or getting involved in the campaign. And I'm
curious that that's something that you had done yourself, you know,
either donated after one of these Yes, one of the
first indictments that I did, I mean twenty five dollars.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
But that's what I could do, because I feel like
I could go after him, that could go after anybody.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Trump's single largest day of fundraising for the twenty twenty
four election came the week he was arraigned in Manhattan
last April. Here's my colleague Laura Davison. Again, we do
see spikes in giving.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
You know, every time there was an indictment announced, particularly
the mugshot and the Georgia case that really went viral
on social media because it was a just this visual moment,
there was a ton of giving.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
In addition to donations, the Trump campaign is looking at
other ways of raising cash, like marketing new merchandise, a
signature cologne, candles, gold sneakers with red souls. Here he
is unveiling his four hundred dollars shoes that Trump never
surrender high tops at a sneaker convention in Philadelphia last month.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Now, this country's not doing so well. We're going to
turn this country around fast.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
We're going to turn it around fast, and we're going
to remember the young people, and we're going to remember
sneaker Cohn.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
But even Trump's shoes can't escape the possibility of litigation.
People have pointed out that the red bottoms of his
sneakers could open him up to a trademark lawsuit from
Christian Lubitan. The year ahead for Trump could be heavily
defined by the outcome of his pending criminal cases and
how he navigates them financially. He's also endorsed his daughter
(13:40):
in law, Laura Trump, to be co chair of the
Republican National Committee. That'll be determined at an RNC meeting tomorrow,
and she said that she would put the full weight
of the committee behind paying legal fees in these cases.
Those court battles, coupled with his bid to voters as
an overall candidate, could spell out a complicated year for
the former president.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
The money that he has in his various accounts that
it is able to pay for legal fees is set
to run out sometime around June July August. This is
right when both his campaign, the Republican National Committee everyone
is going to be in full on election mode, buying
a ton of television advertisements, wanting to hold events all
across the country, and Trump's going to have to make
(14:22):
a decision either does he turn to his donors and say, hey,
can you guys give me more money for my illegal fees.
Does he decide to pay for it himself, or does
he go to the RNC and ask them for money.
And the RNC also is having their own cash troubles
as well, so this is a really setting up to
be a sort of midyear money fight.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloemberg News. I'm Saliah Mosen. This episode was produced by
Julia Press and David Fox. It was edited by Aaron Edwards.
It was mixed by Ben O'Brien. It was fact checked
by Stacey Renee. Naomi Shaven is our senior producer. Michael Shepherd,
Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editorial direction. A special
(15:09):
thanks to Hadrianna Lowencron, Stephanie Lai, and Michael Sasso. Nicole
Beemsterboer is our executive producer. Stage Bauman is Bloomberg's head
of podcasts. You can find The Big Take in print too,
on the Terminal and bloomberg dot Com, featuring the very
best of Bloomberg's in depth original reporting around the globe.
Thanks for listening. Please follow and review The Big Take
(15:31):
DC wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners
find the show
Hosts And Creators
Sarah Holder
Saleha Mohsin
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!