Mark Cuban defends Trump after Dem Rep. Ted Lieu accused him of being too broke to pay $464 million judgment

Politics

By Victor Nava

Mark Cuban defended Donald Trump Tuesday after a Democratic lawmaker accused the former president of lying about his net worth. 

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) used the hashtag “TrumpIsBroke” in a post on X after the former president’s lawyers told a New York court that the 77-year-old failed to secure the nine-figure bond sum in his civil fraud case despite approaching more than 30 firms. 

“Trump claims he is a billionaire. But he can’t pay a $464 million judgment. That means he is lying. How do I know? Math,” Lieu wrote.

Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and former “Shark Tank” host, came to Trump’s defense In a lengthy response to the Democratic congressman, arguing that “Net worth is completely different than cash in the bank.” 

“Ted, you know I’m no supporter of Trump. That’s for damn sure,” Cuban, 65, began his post. “How anyone can vote for someone who has so many of his executive employees turn on him,  and, say he is incompetent is beyond me.” 

“But you are wrong on this topic Ted.” 

Cuban noted that in a “zero interest rate environment” it would’ve been “dumb” for Trump to keep his cash in a bank or money market account. 

“Also dumb was keeping interest rates that low for that long. Something Trump demanded more of, “ the Dallas Mavericks minority owner claimed. 

“So you can argue that [Trump] put himself in this situation by making sure that the only way to grow his net worth was non cash investments. You can also argue Trump sucked at growing his net worth which led to him putting himself in this position by lying to banks about his assets,” Cuban continued. “There is only one reason to lie on a loan application  – you have to.”  

The founder of Cost Plus Drugs said “few people are keeping more than 45 percent of their assets” liquid, and Trump’s non-liquid commercial real estate and foreign assets would be impossible to use as collateral. 

“No bond company is loaning against them in this commercial real estate market, if ever,” Cuban argued. 

Trump refuses to sell off his properties to put up the bond in his civil fraud judgment since that sort of fire sale would result in massive losses, his lawyers said in a court filing.

Earlier this month, Cuban revealed that he voted for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Texas GOP presidential primary over Trump and he plans to cast his ballot for President Biden in November. 

“If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden,” Cuban told Bloomberg News.