Ex-DOJ Official Flags Scathing New Nickname For Cash-Strapped Trump
Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Sunday drew attention to a pointed new Donald Trump moniker making the rounds on social media: “Don Poorleone.”
The former president had until Monday to secure a bond for the multimillion dollar civil fraud judgement against him while he appeals the ruling. Come the deadline, if Trump does not post bond, New York Attorney General Letitia James could move to enforce the $454 million judgement by seizing his assets.
“There’s a reason why I think some people are calling Donald Trump Don Poorleone right now, and it’s because he’s kind of talking out of both sides of his mouth,” Katyal told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki.
The nickname, a play on the name of fictional mafia boss Don Corleone from “The Godfather,” was trending on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend along with mockery and memes aplenty.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform Friday that he has nearly $500 million in cash — undermining his request to an appeals court to reduce, waive or delay the bond requirement because he can’t come up with the money in time.
“These things don’t make much sense together,” Katyal said of the contradicting claims, pointing out that this type of behavior was “what got Trump in trouble in the first place.”
“This is lying about his assets, and now he’s kind of doing the same thing,” he added.
Come Monday, he predicted, there would not be “some immediate process where Tish James is going to walk into 40 Wall Street on Tuesday and change the locks or something like that. The seizure process takes a while.”
She may, however, take steps towards doing so, by filing liens on some of Trump’s properties, Katyal said. She has already made moves to do that for Trump’s properties in Westchester County, New York.
She may also file bank levies to take money in Trump’s accounts, Katyal said.
“That process can occur more quickly,” he said. “Now, what Trump is going to do in the interim, he’s going to try and go to the New York appeals court to stop this. I don’t expect that to succeed, but he’ll try. He also may try and file a federal lawsuit that’ll go nowhere fast.”
Watch his analysis below via MSNBC.