No. of Recommendations: 8
In 2018, Trump appointed Chubb’s CEO Evan Greenberg to a White House advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.
Here's a hypothetic to lay on ya, as they say in Texas...
Per that story in The New Republic, the insurer that posted the bond is a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance Group. Did Trump promise Evan Greenberg a cabinet position if elected in exchange for coughing up the promise to pay $93 million if he loses his case and still cannot come up with $93 million on his own? Examining this on a purely transactional basis (the only way the Trump mind operates) would seem to make a pretty good case for that.
* Trump doesn't have $93 million in cash available to pay the judgement outright
* Trump might have an estimated $10 million for a BOND against the $93 million but...
* no other party trusts his evaluations of assets he's willing to promise as collateral
* requiring favor leverage from a different angle to be utilized
* Trump HAS the carrot of future appointments in Trump Administration II to offer to encourage co-signers
* there is still a $554 million dollar shoe waiting to drop in a few weeks
* but Trump has to focus on the first deadline facing him that could divulge his true financial state to live to fight another week
From Greenberg's perspective,
* Chubb is making money by insuring development projects for oil and gas in Russia
* Greenberg was already willing to contribute to Trump charades in his first Administration
* Trump COULD possibly defer payment of civil penalties for another four years IF he wins the Presidency and convinces a pliant Supreme Court of some new rule that Presidents are freed from paying prior civil obligations while President
* If Chubb can continue lining up deals that net BILLIONS in profits dealing with Russia, writing a check for $93 million is just the cost of doing business to earn the billions
* paying Trump's $93 million judgment might be PEANUTS to what Chubb is paying under the table for the privilege of doing business in Putin's Russia
* since Chubb may already be in a ethical twilight zone by doing business in Russia, Chubb's board may have no qualms about its CEO allowing a subsidiary to taken on this $93 million exposure
* if Trump can win and make it to January 20, 2025 and make Greenberg Commerce Secretary, there may be many gifts on Chubb's corporate wish list that Greenberg would be in a position to obtain
Of course, if Democrats retain control of the Senate, cabinet appointments by a re-elected Trump will be placed under an electron microscope and likely blocked at any whiff of prior deals such as this. I'd expect Trump to overlook this possibility. If Greenberg was thinking along the lines above and still entered into this "partnership," he apparently has not considered it either which may prove he is equally corrupt and dumb as Trump.
WTH
