Eric Trump says insurance firms laughed at his father Donald's $464M bond request, Internet calls it 'political persecution'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: In a recent appearance on 'Sunday Morning Futures' with Maria Bartiromo, Eric Trump, son of former president Donald Trump, made startling claims regarding the ongoing legal battles faced by his father.

Eric recalled how insurance companies were amused when his father sought a half-billion-dollar bond request, shedding light on the complexities surrounding the Trump family's legal woes.

The genesis of the issue lies in a civil fraud case initiated by Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of New York against the former president. Following a ruling in this case, Donald Trump was instructed to pay the State of New York a staggering $464 million. However, an appeals court eventually brought that number down to $175 million on Monday.

Eric Trump lashes out

Speaking on behalf of his father, Eric Trump alleged that this amount was unattainable in the United States as insurance companies reportedly declined to provide the necessary bond.

“You know what, it was a crooked number,” he said, before adding, “There are no victims. There is no number. The number should be zero. My father has run a great company. I run a great company. We’ve never had a default. We’ve never missed a payment. We’ve never been in a breach of covenant.”

"Leticia James campaigned on this promise, and now they’re making him do something that’s not physically possible! Putting up half-a-billion-dollar bond — bonds that size don’t exist in this country. A $10 million bond is a large bond. A $15 million bond is an enormous bond. A half-a-billion dollar bond?" Eric asked.

He continued, “I went after the largest sureties in the world, the largest sureties in the country. They said, ‘Eric, the last time we’ve seen a bond that size is when we did the Big Dig of Boston, which was a $25 billion construction project that lasted almost 25 years!’ They’re trying to put my father out of business, they’re trying to take all his resources that he’s trying to put into his own campaign for the presidency."

During the interview, Eric Trump scoffed at the magnitude of the bond demand, noting that such colossal figures were unprecedented in the country's legal landscape. He argued that the exorbitant sum sought by the court was beyond the realm of feasibility, describing it as an attempt to undermine his father's business interests and political ambitions

“Maria, this is lawfare,” the Republican nominee’s son said, as quoted by Mediaite. “They want to hurt my father, who’s winning the presidential race right now. He’s beating Biden in every single poll in every single swing state. He came out and said he wants to put hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign. And how do they deprive him of that?” he further asked.

“They have [Judge Arthur Engoron] come up with an astronomical number, give you zero time to post a bond, a bond that’s not even commercially available in the United States. It’s not — no one’s ever seen a bond this size,” Eric continued.

“Every single person when I came to them saying, ‘Hey, can I get a half-billion-dollar bond?’ Maria, they were laughing. They were laughing,” he said, before adding, “Top executives of the largest surety companies had never seen anything of this size. What, they’re going to start seizing assets if he can’t put up something that’s not available in the United States?”

Furthermore, Eric Trump highlighted the adverse repercussions of these legal proceedings on the Trump Organization and its global reputation. He lamented that the spectacle unfolding in New York courts was tarnishing America's image as a bastion of legal certainty and investor confidence.

"People internationally are watching the charade. America's losing our standing in the world when they see this," the younger Trump told Bartiromo on Sunday. "People invest in America from all over the planet because they know we're the safe harbor, that this kind of stuff can't exist and doesn't exist, and now they're seeing this exists in the United States. You know the damage that does to our country?" he asked further.

Social media reactions

The interview prompted a flurry of reactions on social media, with supporters of the Trump family decrying the legal actions as politically motivated interference in the upcoming presidential race.

"This is an attempt to hurt the trump campaign nothing more. This is election interference," one posted on X.

"Election interference. Biden democrats are already cheating in the election that is 7 months away. They want to start a civil war. We must beat these communist psychopaths at the ballot box," another wrote.

"The corruption in DOJ is appalling. The two judges are compromised by the @WhiteHouse. They are taking Trump's money for campaign crippling. This is Election interference," someone else added.

"This is blatant political persecution, everyone can see it clearly!" another chimed in.

Trump achieved a legal victory on Monday when an appeal resulted in a reduction of their bond requirement. They are now obligated to furnish $175 million within the next 10 days to halt the enforcement of a $464 million judgment imposed against them.

Failure to meet this bond requirement could potentially expose some of Trump's valuable real estate and other assets to seizure by the state.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.