This story originally appeared in Salon Mar. 19, 2024.
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/20/is-dangerously-desperate-for-a-bailout/?utm_source=pocket_saves

Trump is dangerously desperate for a bailout

The return of Paul Manafort shows that the Trump campaign is willing to trade security for some funds

By Heather Digby Parton

Published March 20, 2024 9:16AM (EDT)

Donald Trump had an epic meltdown on his social media site Trump Social on Tuesday. Even for someone who is prone to ranting and raving in public, this was one for the books. Apparently on the verge of cracking under the financial pressure stemming from the civil judgments against him for defamation and fraud, he let fly post after post filled with whining and invective against New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Justice Arthur Engoron. 

"Any business thinking about moving into New York State is CRAZY! The level of anger and hostility toward businesses and business people is incredible," Trump wrote. "Numerous people have spoken to me about this since the Racist and Politically Corrupt A.G., who ran for office on a platform of 'I will get Trump' without knowing anything about me or my business, and her corrupt puppet Judge, Arthur Engoron, who has already been overturned 4 times on this case, a record, started doing a number on me."

He seems a little bit stressed, wouldn't you say?

Trump went on to claim that the two are trying to take his fortune and force him to sell his assets in a "fire sale," a good indication that his boasts in his fraud trial deposition that he could find a "buyer from Saudi Arabia to pay any price he suggests” (a claim Engoron pointed out in his ruling “may suggest influence buying more than savvy investing") might not be a sure thing. Trump testified that he undervalued his properties, not overvalued them. He also said he was flush with hundreds of millions of dollars and no debt. Now it turns out he can't get a bond — possibly because his properties are already leveraged and the lenders don't want any other liens on them — and he's crying that he doesn't have any cash. It sure looks like Engoron's ruling was right on the money. Trump is an inveterate liar about his fortune. Why anyone ever lent him money in the first place remains one of life's biggest mysteries. 

But maybe he can find a Russian oligarch to step up.

Back in 2016, one of Russia's likely assets, Paul Manafort, was Trump's campaign manager. He turned out to be massively in debt to a Russian oligarch and used inside information from the Trump campaign to pay him back. Back in those early days, Trump didn't yet know that he could get away with anything so he fired Manafort when this information came out. Manafort ended up being sentenced to 47 months in federal prison in one case and 73 months in another for a variety of crimes uncovered in the course of Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the election. You may recall that among other crimes like tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying, Manafort pleaded guilty to money laundering related to his work in Ukraine with various Russian players. But he subsequently lied so much to the special counsel's office that they withdrew the plea agreement and he went to trial.

Today Manafort's relationships with Ukraine and Russia should be of renewed concern to federal authorities since, according to the Washington Post, he's now expected to join Trump's 2024 campaign — at a time when we know that Trump badly needs money. 

One stated reason for the hire, as cited in most reports, is that they need him to run the convention. It's a job that he was well known for back in the 1980s before he decamped to Ukraine to run their campaigns and launder money. In 2016 the GOP didn't have a real organization and had to take what they could get. They eagerly hired anyone with a pulse and Manafort was placed in the campaign by his former business partner and Trump's personal dirty trickster Roger Stone (also pardoned by Trump before he went into temporary exile at Mar-a-Lago). But there is zero need to hire Manafort to "run the convention" now. There are plenty of people who could do that. It's the other stated reason that makes more sense. The Post reported that the job would "include Manafort playing a role in fundraising for the presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign." 

Manafort hasn't been involved in fundraising in America in many years. But he sure knows his way around Russian oligarchs and spies, and he definitely knows how to broker a quid pro quo. As journalist Marcy Wheeler reminds us, Manafort's contact during the 2016 campaign, the Russian asset Konstantin Kilimnik (who is under indictment in the U.S.) had once pitched him on Russian help in the election in exchange for allowing Russia to carve up Ukraine. 

That deal didn't pan out in the first term, but you can see why Trump, in his desperate financial straits, might want to reopen that line of communication. It sure looks like Trump is ready to close the deal if he gets elected in November. He clearly intends to withdraw military funding and let Russia have its way with the country (and anywhere else it chooses, for that matter). 

The weird and inexplicable relationships between Trump, Ukraine and Russia have been a constant refrain for the past eight years and nothing ever shakes Trump's bizarre willingness to court this scandal over and over again. There have been investigations and impeachments and trials and convictions yet he just can't leave it alone. His obsequious behavior toward Vladimir Putin, his hostility toward Ukraine, the fatuous rationale for ending NATO because "it doesn't pay its bills" and the recent comments that he would allow Russia to invade any country it wants have never made any sense, even for him. Yes, he is a shallow, puerile narcissist who loves to suck up to tyrants so they'll let him into the strongman club but that doesn't fully explain his apparently endless need to prove his fealty to Putin. 

And now he wants to re-hire the convicted felon he later pardoned, a man who admitted to laundering money for Russian oligarchs to do fundraising. Indeed, Trump is overwhelmingly stressed out about having his lies about his fortune exposed and possibly losing everything, but it's hard to believe that even he'd be so reckless as to go there for a bailout. But then he's gotten away with everything so far. So why not? 

As he says, he likes Putin and he knows Putin likes him too. He's always been there for him. Why shouldn't he turn to his good friend in his time of need?

Trump: People say I like Putin. That’s a good thing pic.twitter.com/RZhBRILDSi

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 19, 2024

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Heather Digby Parton, also known as "Digby", is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism. MORE FROM