Bankruptcy is one way out of Trump's financial jam. He doesn't want to take it

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : To secure such a bond, they must put up 120 percent of the judgment - or $557 million - plus pay an $18 million fee to the bond-issuing company, according to an affidavit from Gary Giulietti, an insurance broker and personal friend of Trump's.
52% : In the meantime, Trump could focus on his campaign and not the debt.
48% : Trump issued a statement Monday night attacking James and the court as tools of the Democratic Party and calling the bond amount "unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine.
48% : Trump replied that he had started hundreds of companies and only had to use bankruptcy protection a handful of times, much the way other successful business executives had.
47% : Experts said personal bankruptcy would almost certainly pause enforcement of the New York judgment for Trump and his co-defendants, including his business entities.
46% : "Trump could also find a bank or extremely wealthy individual willing to come to his aid, either by accepting some of his real estate as collateral and helping with a bond, or by lending him money against his properties.
45% : To drag the process out as much as possible, Trump could wait to file until the attorney general moves to begin enforcement.
44% : On the campaign trail, Trump in years past explained away those corporate bankruptcies, saying he used a tool many savvy investors have employed - and noting that he never had to file personally.Were he to file for bankruptcy now, he probably would not have to "pay anything until after the bankruptcy, and that will take several years because of the complexity," bankruptcy attorney Avi Moshenberg said.
44% : It's not clear whether she would do that immediately if Trump fails to post a bond next week, or whether she would wait until the appeals court rules on his request to waive the bond requirement.
43% : "Yet filing for bankruptcy is a maneuver Trump has used before - six times, when extricating himself from a tumultuous foray into the Atlantic City casino business decades ago.
43% : Engoron ordered Trump to pay more than $350 million in penalties, plus interest.
43% : To delay enforcement of the New York judgment while he appeals, Trump and his co-defendants must post that amount in cash or a bond - a guarantee that a third party will pay Trump's bill if he ends up losing.
43% : While Trump isn't considering bankruptcy now, he has been known among longtime aides to change his mind.
43% : How much protection filing for bankruptcy would provide Trump -- and how long that protection would last -- depends in part on whether Trump files personally or on behalf of one of his companies.
41% : With few options available, O'Brien said he expected Trump to lash out even more aggressively in public.
40% : A bankruptcy filing by Trump personally or by one of his companies could delay for months or years the requirement that he pay the judgment of nearly half a billion dollars, which with interest is growing by more than $100,000 a day.
39% : However, Trump has few remaining ties with Wall Street banks; based on his most recent financial disclosure, submitted to a federal ethics office in August, he has only about a half-dozen loans remaining from a few banks.
38% : Trump has polled advisers, lawyers and others in recent days about what he should do if the court doesn't come to his aid, and he hasn't yet come to a decision, that person said.
35% : Though he is loath to sell his properties, Trump could try offloading some hotels or golf courses for cash in coming days.
31% : He said he believes that they will view the half-billion-dollar judgment against Trump skeptically.
30% : Trump does not have the cash to secure a bond that would delay enforcement of the $464 million judgment while he appeals, his lawyers say.
25% : During a 2015 GOP primary debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump why he should be trusted with the nation's finances given his bankruptcies.
23% : That amount is on top of a $91 million bond Trump posted less than two weeks ago to delay enforcement of a judgment in a defamation lawsuit he lost to writer E. Jean Carroll.
22% : Because Trump's companies are tightly intertwined with his own finances, a bankruptcy judge could rule that Trump is personally protected in the bankruptcy process -- and thus not required to pay the penalty immediately -- even if just one of his companies files for protection.
21% : Trump has already lost a measure of corporate independence as a result of the New York civil fraud case.
18% : But Trump is not considering that approach, partially out of concern that it could damage his campaign to recapture the White House from President Biden in November, according to four people close to the former president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions about Trump's finances.
18% : Last month, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found that Trump, his two eldest sons and two of his executives submitted fraudulent financial data to lenders and insurance companies to secure better deals.
16% : "He'd rather have Letitia James show up with the sheriff at 40 Wall and make a huge stink about it than say he's bankrupt," one of the people close to Trump said.
14% : As Donald Trump faces dwindling options to pay off a massive fine imposed as a result of losing a fraud case in New York, financial experts say filing for bankruptcy would provide one clear way out of his financial jam.
12% : "This is his worst nightmare from a personal and financial situation," said journalist Timothy O'Brien, who wrote a biography of Trump and later served as a political adviser to Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020.

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