The Republican Party is united in its belief that Donald Trump’s court-ordered financial distress is the product of Democratic Party “lawfare.” Liberal prosecutors and courts have set out to persecute an upstanding businessman, hounding him over minor or nonexistent financial discrepancies. He is being forced to liquidate his extremely solid business to pay trumped-up fines.
The conservative talk-show host Mark Levin has absorbed these complaints and earnestly raises a natural follow-up question: Why aren’t any patriotic conservative businesspeople stepping in to rescue Trump with a loan?
This is a perfectly natural response to the premise that Trump’s totally legitimate business is facing a sudden cash crunch. And yet, none of the Republican billionaires have stepped forward to loan Trump the funds to get him through this short-term crisis.
Let me propose an alternative explanation for the paradox Levin is observing: Wealthy Republicans are hesitant to extend large loans to Trump because he is, in fact, a crook.
Trump has built his entire business career on the premise that laws are merely suggestions. The method has generally succeeded. When the government tried to make him allow Black people to live in his father’s apartment buildings, he defied the law and repeated Justice Department efforts to force compliance. He and his father funneled millions of dollars into his pockets illegally via a tax-fraud scheme of shell companies and phony paperwork. He repeatedly and habitually refuses to pay contractors for services rendered. He boasted that he could buy off public officials, a belief that, correct or not, explained his brazen willingness to cheat and steal.
All these methods have worked for him. He was finally caught using double books to report different valuations to lenders and tax officials — probably not Trump’s worst crime, but one that was provable in court.
Most recently, this week, Trump was reported to be bringing back Paul Manafort into his orbit. Manafort was imprisoned for tax fraud, witness tampering, illegal lobbying, and other crimes. A normal law-abiding politician or businessperson who discovered that a close associate had been involved in criminal activity over a long period of time would feel embarrassment and wish to distance himself from a criminal associate.
Trump’s response was that Manafort had stayed “strong,” refusing to cooperate with prosecutors, and should be rewarded for his loyalty. That is a pattern of behavior that would be very normal for Tony Soprano, but less so for a wealthy hedge-fund owner, retail magnate, or the other kinds of wealthy Republicans who might entertain loaning Trump money.
And while those wealthy Republicans are happy to vote for Trump again, their calculation is that he will get into office and enact a tax cut that will make them richer. If doing so requires them to loan money to a crook who lies about everything, including his finances, that changes the proposition. They would absorb the risk that there are other fraudulent evaluations in Trump’s portfolio, and that Trump might stiff them as he has previous lenders. In short, this would mean supporting Trump would probably lose them money, which is the opposite of their intent.
Of course, if I am wrong about all this, then Ken Langone or Elon Musk or Jeff Yass or some other Republican moneybags will soon step forward to loan Trump money in full confidence they can expect repayment.
But I don’t think I am wrong.
