Donald Trump reportedly used a bail bondsman after being arrested at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, paying $20,000 of his bond set at $200,000 and taking out a loan for the rest of it. The fact that the former president resorted to such a measure has sparked questions on social media about the state of his finances.
He’s rich. First rule of being rich is never pay when you can borrow.
But this isn’t the same kind of thing. When the court sets bail, you give them that amount as like a deposit. When you show up to court, you get it back. Looks of people don’t have the cash though, so they go to a ball bondsman, give them 10% of the total amount, and the bondsman pays the court the whole amount. When you show up to court, the bondsman gets that amount back, and they keep your 10%.
So yes, it’s a loan, but it’s a really shitty loan. I can’t see how he wouldn’t be better off just paying the full amount himself unless he thinks he can successfully skip town.
Completely agree with you, however if trump thought he would get more than 20k in returns on the 180k in principle he saved, this also is a good financial play.
That said, 200k is petty cash for a billionaire. Or should be, if one was.
I suppose a big factor is how long until trial. If it’s less than a year, it seems unlikely he’d get that, but if he manages to stretch it out to multiple years, he’d get that easily.
It’s .02%, or .0002 of a billion. That’s a whoops it slipped out of my pocket while I was changing my diaper kind of petty cash.
Depending on how long it is until hed get the deposit back, they money may be better off invested.
I don’t know the schedule, but I think it’s supposed to be expedited because of the upcoming election. But if Trump is successful in stalling it, who knows how long that money would be tied up.
IMO he’s probably planning on playing games and no showing, but it may make sense financially too depending on their plan
Funny, I just said basically the same thing to someone else. Yeah, if he pushes it out a couple years, he’d really make more investing it.
Yep. I’d say that no matter what, it’s a bad idea to do business w Trump, but it may be worth 20 or 200k to the bail bondsman for the notoriety
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Not exactly. Rich people pay cash when doing so avoids fees. It would only make financial sense if bail bonds in Georgia go for below market rates.
If he could have paid bail through a PAC or one of his companies, that would most probably be cheaper.
He likely doesn’t have $200K to his personal name (to avoid tax) and is probably not allowed to pay bail from his PAC or company.
Rich people take loans when the loan is cheaper than an investment. If he can borrow at 10% and has money making. 12% there’s no reason not to take the loan. Rich people almost never use cash and they have very few cash in hand
No, absolutely not.
No rich person is paying retail interest rates of 10%.
If Trump could access his PAC money, he would be paying the bond in cash and have a loan against his PAC with favourable terms.
Rich people almost always pay cash with funds secured by low interest loans from their company or private bank.
Not all loans are created equal. High interest retail debt is for poor people to get stuck in debt traps. Low interest financing is for rich people to avoid taxes and leverage their money for more.
Except when you give 10% to the bail bondsman, you don’t get that money back.
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This might actually be the real answer? A smart accountant may have recommended this assuming the trial would drag on for years?
That’s the point – 10% as opposed to 100%
You would get back 100% of bail once you show up for court. That’s how a bail bondsman makes money.
Right, ignore me.
Though I suspect that if you can leverage that debt, you can still come out ahead.
It’s not debt it’s a payment.
So he doesn’t owe the remaining 90% to anyone?
it was probably money suckered from some of his followers
Seriously this. Or if the borrowing rate is less than what you can make in the mean time by keeping it, why would you?
This isn’t borrowing. This is paying.