Trump's $4 billion empire could evaporate -- Sabrina Haake

[erronis]

https://sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/trump-is-not-civilly-immune-for-damages

With all the ruin emanating from the Oval Office on a daily basis, it's easy to fall into quiet despair. Following the news feels like monitoring a malignant tumor as it spreads outward from the epicenter of the free world, jumping oceans, URLs, and psyches, threatening the globe on macro and micro levels simultaneously. Only this sickness, this decidedly opportunistic cancer, has never been seen before. Certainly this level of rot has not been diagnosed in our young 250 year history.

Trump's singularly corrupt and destructive appetite, both fed and insulated by the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, is hard to stomach. After SCOTUS handed criminal immunity to a psychopath, despondency set in as the world sorrowfully assumed that Trump would get away with his crimes against humanity forever.

Then, just there, on the unlit edge of the blackest cloud to have darkened the world in a very long time, a glimmering trace of silver peaked out. In a development that should have streaked across the headlines like a meteor but barely got a mention, a federal judge issued what looks to be an irreversible ruling that Trump will stand to pay for at least one of his heinous crimes: J6.

Trump will likely lose his ill-got gains

Measuring the amount of corruption lining Trump's pocket is like shoveling on a snowy day. As of late January, Trump had pocketed upwards of $4 billion from untraceable crypto currency ventures, suspicious market manipulations, and outright bribery from foreign and domestic sources during his first year back in office.

He'd better be thinking on how to hide it, because U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta has ruled that Trump. Is. Civilly. Liable for the damages he caused on January 6, 2021.

. . .

[mwmisses4289]

1. What?!? Whoa!!

[flvegan]

2. "Could" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting here.

First, consequences are unlikely, and nobody is getting a $4 billion judgment. Second, if someone did get some sort of monetary judgment, Dipshit Donnie will get someone else to pay it (his idiot masses, the Saudis or Russians, etc) or just declare bankruptcy again. That would be after he exhausted any/all appeals/delays, etc.

Lets not forget, we're only one year and change into the latest four year grift. He's building a ballroom (to steal from), an arc (to steal from), at least one war he started (to steal from), almost weekly market manipulation (to steal from) and whatever kompromat scam he's got running on the rest of the pedo party.

And that's if, IF, he doesn't somehow find his way into a third term, because fuck the Constitution and the general stupidity of tens of millions of shitbag Americans who like the idea of someone who very well may have raped little girls running the show. They're dumber than shit and happy to express that at the ballot box.

I admire the author's optimism and wish it Godspeed. I wish I shared it.

[orthoclad]

3. So much wealth these days is just abstract symbols

1s and 0s on a server somewhere.

A few generations ago, oligarchs got rich by MAKING things: railroads, ships, Bell telephones. Now a huge part of wealth is imaginary, but still powerful. The markets rapidly move up and down, and superfast machines buy low and sell high. The difference between high and low is the value. So chaos in the markets is just a buying opportunity.

This happened in the Great Recession, for example. Those with large accumulated reserves of wealth bought up distressed housing on the cheap and cornered the market. This is why housing is so ridiculously expensive now. One of the "F" mags, Fortune maybe, ran an article in 2010, at the peak of the misery, crowing about how there was a record number of new billionaires. (that article soon evaporated from the web: can't have the hoi-polloi see the shell game)

Another game was the tariffs. Trump charged the money, consumers paid for it, now corporations get reimbursed by the taxpayer/consumer due to a ruling by the Trump-packed court. All the controversy and rage from T is just kayfabe, noise to cover the enormous profits from this shell game. Can we really expect that a process which results in huge corporate profits milked from taxpayers is just an accident? Nothing was manufactured, no services were given, but billions of 1s and 0s go into the servers of the rich who can afford legions of accountants and lawyers. Meanwhile, we pay double the price for food. This shows the contrast between abstract wealth and value in the physical world.

Trump makes his money by just slapping his name on things, perhaps the purest form of ghostly wealth. So I won't be surprised if his servers lose the 1s and 0s when there comes a point where his antics no longer serve oligarch purposes. Maybe Trump, The Next Generation will take over the clowning.

[orthoclad]

4. So much wealth these days is just abstract symbols

1s and 0s on a server somewhere.

A few generations ago, oligarchs got rich by MAKING things: railroads, ships, Bell telephones. Now a huge part of wealth is imaginary, but still powerful. The markets rapidly move up and down, and superfast machines buy low and sell high. The difference between high and low is the profit. So chaos in the markets is just a buying opportunity.

This happened in the Great Recession, for example. Those with large accumulated reserves of wealth bought up distressed housing on the cheap and cornered the market. This is why housing is so ridiculously expensive now. One of the "F" mags, Fortune maybe, ran an article in 2010, at the peak of the misery, crowing about how there was a record number of new billionaires. (that article soon evaporated from the web: can't have the hoi-polloi see the shell game)

Another game was the tariffs. Trump charged the money, consumers paid for it, now corporations get reimbursed by the taxpayer/consumer due to a ruling by the Trump-packed court. All the controversy and rage from T is just kayfabe, noise to cover the enormous profits from this shell game. Can we really expect that a process which results in huge corporate profits milked from taxpayers is just an accident? Nothing was manufactured, no services were provided, but billions of 1s and 0s go into the servers of the rich who can afford legions of accountants and lawyers. Meanwhile, we pay double the price for food. This shows the contrast between abstract wealth and physical value in the real world.

Trump makes his money by just slapping his name on things, perhaps the purest form of ghostly wealth. So I won't be surprised if his servers lose the 1s and 0s when there comes a point where his antics no longer serve oligarch purposes. Maybe Trump, The Next Generation will take over the clowning.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Trump's vast fortune could be wiped out by judge's startling ruling: legal analyst

This lawsuit survived the motions to dismiss and could bankrupt trump

Trump's vast fortune could be wiped out by judge's startling ruling: legal analyst #RawStory

— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T16:41:33.000Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jan-6-2676815956/

President Donald Trump could see his vast personal fortune wiped out by a judge's ruling relating to the January 6 Capitol Hill attack, a legal analyst wrote Sunday.

The insurrection occurred as Congress met to certify the 2020 presidential election results, which Trump had refused to accept. Veteran legal analyst Sabrina Haake believes that Trump could see his personal fortune wiped out should a judge rule he is personally liable for damages accrued during the insurrection.

Haake wrote, "Measuring the amount of corruption lining Trump’s pocket is like shoveling on a snowy day. As of late January, Trump had pocketed upwards of $4 billion from untraceable cryptocurrency ventures, suspicious market manipulations, and outright bribery from foreign and domestic sources during his first year back in office.

"He’d better be thinking on how to hide it, because U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta has ruled that Trump. Is. Civilly. Liable for the damages he caused on January 6, 2021."

Last month, Mehta ruled that Trump was not immune against civil claims for damages regarding Jan. 6.

"Judge Mehta’s cautious 79-page ruling denied Trump civil immunity through a careful analysis largely devoted to distinguishing between Trump’s criminal actions as an office-holder (official-acts immunity), and his actions in seeking office, which were not official acts and therefore are not immune.

"The decision carefully followed the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, and will allow claims against him from members of Congress and Capitol police officers to proceed to trial."