Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host Colin Jost with some perspective on just how unlikable Trump is following the $83 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
JOST: The jury in his defamation case has ordered Donald Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million, and Trump is a billionaire, so obviously he immediately hit up your grandma for five bucks.
They ordered Trump to pay $83 million. That’s how unlikable he is. For perspective, OJ Simpson only had to pay $33 million for a double murder.
CHE: And he didn't even do it.
JOST: Okay... well... this trial must have driven Trump crazy. The judge kept telling him to shut up. The jury made him pay triple what the victim asked for. Even the courtroom sketch artist made him look... made him look like that lady who got her face ripped off by a monkey.
The only way this could have gone worse for Trump is if they took away his businesses, which is, of course, what happens in next week’s trial.
Trump claims he's going to appeal the Carroll case, and won't have to pay Carroll the $83 million yet, but he's going to have to either give the money to the court to hold, or post a bond until his appeals are exhausted:
And while he is waiting for an appellate court to rule, Mr. Trump need not cut Ms. Carroll a check.
Yet the former president is still on the hook to pay something — possibly a sizable sum — while he waits.
Mr. Trump can pay the $83.3 million to the court, which will hold the money while the appeal is pending. This is what he did last year when a jury ordered him to pay Ms. Carroll $5.5 million in a related case.
Or, Mr. Trump can try to secure a bond, which will save him from having to pay the full amount up front.
A bond might require him to pay a deposit and offer collateral, and would come with interest and fees. It would also require Mr. Trump to find a financial institution willing to lend him a large sum of money at a time when he is in significant legal jeopardy.
We'll find out shortly if he's got the money and if not, who is willing to secure a bond for him, so his bad week next week will likely include more than just the verdict in his civil trial in New York.
