I loathe Trump. He is an existential threat to the United States and a traitor. He's a con artist and a crook. A terrible businessman who would have done better putting the money he inherited from his father into an S&P 500 index fund.

OK, got that out of the way.

I think that the NY civil fraud award will be greatly reduced on appeal. The barrier to appal is that Trump has to put up the money or get a bond for the penalty and interest. But he'll do this and the appeals court will reduce his fine.

One of the strongest arguments against the fine is, unfortunately, the one that Trump's attorneys made: there are no victims. The banks were all paid back. No bank or insurance company would reasonably have relied on the valuations that Trump provided. He is a know liar and bankrupt. Bankers have their issues, but they are usually not total morons. They did their own valuations and based the interest rate on this.

Trump knowingly lied. He had been doing this for his whole career in real estate and even wrote about it in one of his books. He should be fined for lying. But the appeals court is likely to find that the fine that was imposed is too outsized.

I wish for nothing but the financial destruction of Trump and his progeny. I hope that I'm wrong about the fine being reduced. Time will tell. If nothing else it is enjoyable watching Trump squirm as he tries to come up with the money to allow his appeal to proceed.