The Trump Organization’s house of cards is beginning to fall, but its namesake is either pretending not to notice or truly doesn’t sense that financial ruin could be on the horizon. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s business associates (both current and former) have a different view of the situation.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that Mazars USA, the former president’s longtime personal and business accounting firm, has severed all ties with Trump and The Trump Organization after determining that 10 years of his financial statements—from 2011 to 2020—could not be trusted. In the wake of that announcement, The Daily Beast spoke with several sources close to Trump who claim that they have urged Trump and those close to him to take the situation much more seriously—and that it has been a surprise to some people.
“I have said for years that this whole thing is one big fishing expedition,” one source said of the ongoing investigations into Trump and his companies. “I’ve expected it to just fizzle at some point, or to turn up ticky tacky shit that can score prosecutors big headlines. The Mazars news was the first time I started thinking, ‘Hey, this might be serious.’ Could Donald Trump [and his business] be screwed? I don’t know, but I’m not as confident as I once was in saying, ‘No.’”
Three people who spoke directly to Trump said that his outlook was positively sunny and that he claimed his businesses were doing “great.”
“But notably,” according to The Daily Beast, “all three predicted that this latest Mazars development would likely strengthen Trump’s resolve to run again for the presidency in 2024.” At the same time, it will scare off both accounting firms from taking Mazars’s place and banks from taking any further risks in loaning the former-turned-wannabe president money.
“This explodes the national security risk by a factor of 10, because now he’s going to be desperate for new loans,” Joseph Cirincione, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank, told The Daily Beast. “Legitimate banks are not going to touch him. So it expands the universe of shady characters who could offer him loans in return for favors that might include disclosing U.S. national security secrets.”
All of which is, well, terrifying.
(Via The Daily Beast)