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Former president Donald Trump made his first public appearance at a rally on Friday since he was criminally indictedover charges to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election.
Appearing at a GOP event in South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed Trump, and established herself as a surrogate to his run for presidency. The gathering saw the ex-president hawk his usual unfounded claims on abortion and immigration, praise North Korean dictatorKim Jong-un, and denounce the 91 felony charges against him.
Trump — who haslied about hisgolf scores, hisweight, thesize of the crowdshe draws, and, according toNew YorkAttorney GeneralLetitia James, his net worth — also took the opportunity to lament over the alleged “billions” he lost while in office.
“I’m the only president that ever lost money while serving in office,” he bemoaned on stage. “I lost a number of billions… I could’ve made a fortune. I could’ve gone to these countries and made deals,” he said wistfully before adding, “I put thing in trusts, I said my kids are gonna run it. I said, ‘Don’t do deals outside of the country’… They go, ‘Dad can we do something? I said, ‘No, you know, I’m president. We have a higher standard.’”
On Friday, a new filingfrom the Attorney General’s office in thestate’s civil fraud lawsuitagainst Trump claimed the former president inflated his net worth by billions of dollars over several years, with the largest discrepancy being an over-valuation of up to $3.6 billion a year —a sum larger than earlier estimates.
Trump inflated the values of his various properties, including his golf clubs, residential properties, and commercial holdings over several years, creating multi-million dollar disparities in the valuations of his assets, according to the filing.
The case was brought by James against Trump,Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump,Ivanka Trump, longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, The Trump Organization, Inc., and several other parties in September of last year. The Attorney General is seeking $250 million in financial penalties and a ban on Trump and his family from running a business in the state.
