The Observer: Donald Trump is on a losing streak after $355 million judgment

Sneakers, really? Golden sneakers? The former (and possibly next) president of the United States was shilling shoes to sneaker aficionados at the Philadelphia Sneaker Con last week. These Trump-branded hightops could have been yours for only $399 a pair. Limit three pairs per customer.

The latest among Trump-inspired products sold out quickly. If you didn’t get in on it right away, you’re out of luck. You might still be able to get a pair on E-bay but for several thousand dollars more.

Without intending to demean shoe salesclerks everywhere, hawking sneakers seems beneath the office of the president, don’t you think? Then again, is anything really beneath this man?

He’s sold Trump vodka. He’s sold Trump steaks. He’s sold Trump hotel rooms. He’s sold Trump perfume and deodorant. He sold Trump bottled water. He’s sold Trump University degrees. He is the greatest eponymous product seller of all time. Never mind that each of these ventures was a total bust.

In fact, the only thing he seems to have succeeded at is convincing sufficient numbers of voters in 2016 to make him president. Technically, he didn’t actually do that either, of course, because he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.86 million votes.

I keep seeing polls that say he is on course to defeat Joe Biden in their rematch of the 2020 election. In that contest four years ago, Trump lost to Biden by more than 7 million votes. Having only two data points to measure (2016 and 2020) makes it difficult to know if there is a pattern, but going from a 2.86 million vote loss to a 7 million vote loss does suggest a trend.

Trump has been on a serious losing streak this year, especially in the courts. He lost some serious legal cases in 2024, and more trials are coming in the months ahead.

In January, he lost a defamation trial involving E. Jean Carroll; a judgment that will cost Trump $83 million. Then, last week, an even bigger judgment was delivered against him in New York.

Just before the golden shoe launch, Trump was handed a financial blow by Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court. Engoron found the former president and his associates had engaged in fraud and related offenses in a case that he said was “not a garden-variety common law fraud case.”

The ruling, detailing the three-month-long trial, including findings of fact and conclusions of law, runs to 92 pages. The Engoron report is not exactly light reading, but it does contain some interesting insights into the judge’s reasoning.

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Engoron writes: “This Court is mindful that this action is not the first time the Trump Organization or its related entities has been found to have engaged in corporate malfeasance.” He concludes somewhat colloquially: “This is not (the) defendants’ first rodeo.”

The ruling reviews prominent criminal and civil cases decided against the Trump Organization in recent years: a 2013 fraud case resulting from the marketing and operation of Trump University (the case was resolved as part of a class action settlement in which Donald Trump and the Trump Organization agreed to pay $25 million to Trump University clients); a 2018 case involving the Trump Foundation (resulting in the foundation’s dissolution); a 2022 case involving Trump Old Post Office LLC and its collection of “excessive fees”; and another 2022 case in which the Trump Organization was convicted of 17 criminal counts arising out of tax fraud and related offenses.

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As a result of the actions taken by the defendants in this 2024 case, the judge handed down penalties of almost $355 million to Donald Trump, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the Trump Organization, Inc. and other Trump-related entities. In addition, his sons Donald and Eric were ordered to pay over $4 million each and Allen Weisselberg (former CEO of the Trump Organization) another million for their roles in the conspiracy.

If the golden sneakers campaign could only sell a million pairs and clear 90% profit on each and every pair, the Trumps would rake in enough cash to meet Judge Engoron’s order. However, since they sold only 1,000 pairs, they are going to come up short. The Trumps are going to have to sell off some serious assets.

Anybody in the market for some Palm Beach real estate?

Ron McAllister is a sociologist and writer who lives in York.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The Observer: Donald Trump is on a losing streak after $355M judgment