Trump launches $399 sneakers days after being ordered to pay $350m in fraud trial: Live

Here’s Kelly Rissman with news of one way the Republican might be able to meet his bills: crowdfunding.

He has a mighty long way to go though.

After a New York judge ordered Trump and his companies to pay almost $355m in fines, plus interest, on Friday, the Republican’s legal debts might now exceed a half-billion dollars.

The stiff penalty comes just weeks after he was ordered to pay $83.3m to E Jean Carroll for damaging her reputation after she accused him of sexual assault.

A separate jury last year awarded Carroll $5m from Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.

Add interest payments on top of that and the judgments could deal a staggering blow to the personal fortune that remains core to Trump’s political appeal.

He has adamantly denied wrongdoing and pledged to appeal, a process that could take months or even years.

In the meantime, here’s what we know about what Trump owes, whether he’ll have to pay up, and what comes next.

Also this weekend, Trump gave a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, in which he moaned about his New York fraud trial verdict – “The judge fined me $355 million for doing everything right!” – and once again denied ever having met E Jean Carroll.

He also joked about President Biden doing coke in the White House, ridiculing his successor’s lack of energy.

The old “cognitive decline” narrative rather fell apart, however, when Trump himself made a series of incoherent statements and bizarre blunders that should give anyone planning to vote for him in November serious pause for thought, even if they weren’t put off already by the Capitol riot, the unprecedented double impeachment, the 91 criminal charges, the massive legal defeats or the sexual assault ruling going against him.

Trump has reacted furiously after his last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, declined to say she would endorse him during a Fox News town hall event in her native South Carolina, although she did say she would pardon him if she became president.

The Orange One was enraged by this, fuming at her as “stupid” on Truth Social and posting numerous polls to illustrate his apparent dominance over her ahead of Saturday’s all-important Palmetto State primary.

Otherwise, Trump spent his evening whining like a loser about his legal woes and demanding Putin-esque “presidential immunity” in all-caps.

Here’s John Bowden on Haley hammering Trump on precisely that comparison.

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, which conducted its findings between 15 November and 31 December last year, put Honest Abe Lincoln in the top spot, followed by FDR, George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jeffreson.

Annoyingly for Trump, Barack Obama was up to seventh and Joe Biden a respectable 14th while the Republican was bottom of the pile below James Buchanan at 44th, Andrew Johnson at 43rd, Franklin Pierce at 42nd and William Henry Harrison at 41st.

A quick eBay search shows a pair of Trump’s shoes, a frantic attempt to drum up the $500m and counting he needs to cover his recent legal disasters, already going for prices just shy of $5,000.

The former president unveiled his new line of “Never Surrender” high-top trainers at SneakerCon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

Trump was actually loudly booed at the event but one punter nevertheless walked away with an autographed pair having laid out a coll $9,000 for the pleasure.

Despite their obvious cheapness, the golden shoes typically come with a hefty price tag of $399 but have already been resold for many times more online.

Here’s more from Mike Bedigan on Trump’s latest desperate grift foray into the fashion world.

Donald Trump Jr and his younger brother Eric Trump have been ordered to pay a total of more than $8m for the fraudulent business dealings of their father’s sprawling real estate empire.

A New York court on Friday found former president Donald Trump and his Trump Organization liable for just under $464m, representing $364m in surrendered profits and $100m in interest so far.

Prosecutors had accused the company of grossly inflating Mr Trump’s net worth and assets in documents handed to banks and lenders in order to secure more favourable financing terms for some of his star properties.

Io Dodds has the details:

Truck drivers who support former president Donald Trump have voiced that they won’t be driving to New York City to underscore their disappointment with the civil fraud judgment that fined Mr Trump more than $350m.

‘Boycott NYC’ was trending on X, with more than 13,000 posts mentioning the term

Read the full story from Kelly Rissman here: