Trump’s campaign is bankruptcy protection

It pays in US politics to follow the money. In Donald Trump’s case, the money is flowing away from him in the form of various fines and damages — roughly $530mn worth in the past month. The settlements are not high enough to trigger Trump’s bankruptcy. His net worth is around $2.6bn. But they will swallow his cash balance and severely restrict the Trump Organization’s ability to operate. He faces a three-year ban on taking out loans in New York, which is where he leveraged his name in the first place.

The obvious cure for Trump’s business woes is to recapture the White House. Unlike any federal convictions that Trump might suffer between now and election day, it is clear he would have no power as president to pardon himself for his spate of civil losses. But another term would give him great scope to replenish the family coffers in other ways. The world is mostly focused on whether Trump would pull America out of Nato, abandon Ukraine and start new trade wars. Trump’s domestic opponents, meanwhile, are preoccupied with the threat he would pose to America’s constitutional order.