Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow asked Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary point-blank on Tuesday if he’d loan Donald Trump nearly a half-billion dollars in order to appeal the ex-president’s New York bank fraud case, saying it would “protect America’s name.”
O’Leary essentially ignored Kudlow’s plea, despite saying hours earlier that the penalty against Trump was an “attack on America.”
With just days to go until New York Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s assets to pay off the massive $464 million judgment handed down in the case, the former president’s lawyers said that no corporate underwriter was willing to post a bond for his appeal.
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“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s attorneys wrote on Monday, adding that they’d been rejected by “about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers.”
Trump, having already secured a $91.6 million bond for the E. Jean Carroll judgment earlier this month from insurance giant Chubb, is now essentially admitting he doesn’t have the liquid assets left to back another massive bond.
With the ex-president crying about the “un-American” judgment that he’s obviously unable to pay, Trump’s former White House economic adviser looked to drum up some cash on his ex-boss’s behalf.
“But Kevin O’Leary, I think this is where it’s gonna go,” Kudlow said during Tuesday’s broadcast of his eponymous Fox Business show. “I was wondering if he can’t get to the Supreme Court, would you loan him the $460 million?”
The Canadian investor quickly laughed at Kudlow’s apparent joke only for the Fox host to finish his request. “Just to help—in order to protect America’s name, think of it that way,” Kudlow added with a chuckle.
O’Leary, who has declared he’ll never again invest in “loser” New York due to his disgust over the Trump ruling, dodged Kudlow’s entreaty and instead called for the Supreme Court to intervene.
“The terminology of seizing assets, that’s foreign language to an American investor,” O’Leary said. “They want due process. They want the appeal. That sounds like Venezuela, that sounds like Cuba. It’s a really bad look for New York.”
He added: “Bipartisan participants and financial services managers are not okay with this and are getting very uncomfortable. And I think whether it’s the Supreme Court that provides the adult supervision, whether it’s somebody else, we desperately need for this kid’s party for the adults to get home.”
Kudlow, meanwhile, is not the only sycophantic Fox host demanding rich conservatives chip in and help the ex-president. Fox News weekend host Mark Levin took to social media to grumble about the lack of wealthy Republicans stepping up to the plate to cover Trump’s bond.
“Why are there no Republican multi-billionaires offering to lend President Trump the funds to file his appeal in the outrageous case in NY state?” Levin tweeted. “Are none of them liquid enough to help or join with others to help? This is an outrage.”
