'Total blow to the brand': Ex-Trump aide on the former president's wealth woes
The Donald Trump brand has always been gilded in gold. But the former president's cash crunch of late is reportedly causing concern.
Former Donald Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin appearing on CNN explained that Trump world is disconcerted in publicly being shown to struggle with paying the $464 million sum set by a New York judge as part of the trial that found he and The Trump Organization committed fraud for years.
"It's incredibly bad," she said. "This is a total blow to the brand of Trump; Trump is as much a brand as he is a businessman in some ways, even more so."
ALSO READ: Trump is exploiting, abusing, playing, bending and breaking the legal system
"Well, I think that's how he was able to get away with inflating his wealth, with being able to secure loans that were completely out of step with what his properties were actually value that."
Griffin fears that the 45th president, who has all but solidified the GOP nomination, could end up being forced to compromise himself and the country for a quick money fix.
"What I'm worried about is this, when Donald Trump is backed into a corner, he gets reckless and he makes reckless decisions," she said. "This may very well move forward next week and they starts seizing properties taken away from him."
"Where's he going to turn?"
Griffin has conjured what some are also concerned about: that there's a possibility "he's going to look to foreign" entities.
"It could be adversaries that could be individuals within nations or adversaries to lend him money if he's not able to secure loans here," she said. "And I think that's a very real possibility that folks need to be thinking about in the broader context of this."