The former president must post the bond for the full amount he owes on Monday or New York Attorney General Letitia James could try to seize his bank accounts or properties.
In an unexpected turn of events, President Donald J. Trump has compared his financial situation with that of famed physicist Erwin Schrödinger's iconic thought experiment, Schrödinger's Cat. The comparison sheds light on a peculiar aspect of Trump's personal wealth: sometimes it exists, and other times it doesn't – all depending on what serves his best interests at the time.
Trump's recent explanation revolves around the concept of superposition, which postulates that two mutually exclusive situations can coexist simultaneously until they are observed or measured. In this analogy, Trump's wallet is both filled with $500 million in cold hard cash and completely empty. It only becomes one or the other when necessary.
"People don’t understand the complexity of my financial situation," said President Trump during the interview. "The world sees me as a multi-billionaire, and while that may be true, there's more to it than meets the eye." He then went on to explain how this complex financial state applies to his recent legal troubles.
As a vivid example, Trump mentioned a fine imposed on him by a New York State judge for failing to comply with the terms of a 2013 settlement regarding his now-defunct Trump University. Despite claiming to have half a billion dollars readily available, Trump argues that this fortune mysteriously evaporates whenever it comes time to pay off his debts.
This intriguing theory has left many scratching their heads. However, some experts believe that Trump's wealth is indeed entangled with his fines; they exist together in an unstable state, where paying his dues would inevitably collapse the system and reveal the true nature of his bank account.
I'm pretty sure it's just "I have $500mil, but it's also similarly promised to 43 other entities around the planet for loans/fines/operating expenses". Trump has made an art form out of ignoring anything that he has to actually pay out, why would bonds be any different for him?