Trump post bond to appeal silly New York fraud case and the left is going to have a meltdown.

$175 million bond posted by former President

I heard Jon Steward ranting about the 450 million dollar fraud ruling just yesterday and how justified because of how dishonest Trump is about his real estate values. You could hear the hate and contempt is his voice.

This gets back to the concept that the left believes that Donald Trump lowers his real estate values to pay less taxes, then raises them when he wants to borrow against them. This is the sort of silly rhetoric that only works if you pull the top of your head off, remove your brain, and then use what is left to make the argument.

Does anyone of these people actually own property? Has anyone ever told the county or the state how much their real estate is worth for tax purposes? Of course not. That is an assessment that is done by someone at the county or state level. Yes, generally your tax statement values is lower than the value of your property if you were to put it up for sale. But that is not fraud. When you borrow money for a mortgage, does anyone walk into a bank and tell them how much their property is worth? Of course not. The bank has their own appraisers and underwriters who do all of that. Do they generally come up with a value that is more than the tax assessment? Yep. Is that fraud on the part of the borrower? Of course not.

Now in Mar-a-Lago's case there is a special tax assessment because of the designation of the property as a resort. This designation seems to fall somewhere between a zoning restriction and a historical monument. Either way, the reality is that Mar-a-Lago is required to remain as a single resident on the one portion of the property and a resort on the other. Donald Trump is not allowed to "develop" the 20 acres (which in those circumstances would probably fetch somewhere between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars). Because of this limitation the County/State assesses the property based on the income of the resort (not the underlying value of the property). In 2011 that value as calculated at 18 million. The assessment even explains that the amount (18 million) does not designate the value of the property and provides the math behind the calculations. The most recent assessment (2021) brings that same value up to 38 million.

So when the Judge suggests that Trump overvalues his property by 2400% for his loan applications, he is using the $18 million as if it is the actual value of Mar-a-Lago. Nobody would argue that Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million with a straight face unless they are out to manipulate the legal system as James and Engoron are obviously attempting to do. Heck, a nearby vacant lot 10% of the size of Mar-a-Lago is on the market for $200 million. Moreover, not even the assessment suggests that the value of the property itself is only $18 million.

On the flip side, the banks who were apparently defrauded by Trump testified in court to Engoron that they were not defrauded, that they used their own values for Trump property for the loans, that they gave Trump fair interest rates, that he paid them, and that they were happy. In other words, they behaved as they behave with everyone that they provide real estate loans to. Nothing special was provided for Trump.

This is why the ability for Trump to post bond is such a bad thing for the left. They know deep down that this 450 million ruling will not hold up over appeal. The facts simply do not bear out what the prosecution is arguing and what the Judge allowed. They played their gambit and lost.