Trump LOSES IT as Wall Street FREEZES ASSETS

Welcome back. It’s time now for the word on Wall Street. Top investors watching your money. Joining me now is UBS managing director and senior portfolio manager Jason Katz. Also with us is Mark Ter this morning. Great to see you guys. Thank you for being here. Jason, welcome to the conversation.

 We are talking about markets that are pulling back. Futures indicating a decline at the start of trading this morning. Uh the Dow was down better than 450 points uh yesterday and it is extending that selloff this morning with another decline of 180 right now. The S&P 500 pulled back yesterday from the record levels that it hit the day before.

 And as you can see, the Dow was down 466 yesterday. The S&P down 23. Fund Strat’s Tom Lee though is talking about the January effect and zeroing in on the first five trading days of the new year. He says that does set the tone for what comes next. If you look back all the way to 1950, when markets are higher for the first 5 days in a new year, the major indices average about 16% gains for the year with an 84% win rate here.

>> Okay, so Donald Trump has a problem. Actually, he has several problems, but this one is about money, his money that he can’t touch. Right now, as we speak, there is 175 million of Donald Trump’s personal fortune sitting in a court-crolled account in New York. He can’t spend it. He can’t invest it. He can’t move it.

It’s locked down, completely frozen. And if he loses his appeal, New York gets to take it. All of it. And then they can go after his properties next. This is wild. This is absolutely wild. And at the same time, Wall Street is watching his every move. And when Trump does something crazy like threatening to blow up trade with Europe unless they give him Greenland, Yeah.

 The markets tank instantly. Billions of dollars wiped out. Investors running for the exits. And then when Trump backs down and says, “Just kidding. We have a framework deal.” The markets bounce right back. So here’s what’s actually happening. Trump has a giant chunk of his own wealth locked down under court control. Like literally can’t access it.

 And on top of that, every time he makes a wild threat or pushes some extreme policy, Wall Street punishes him immediately by selling off stocks and creating market chaos. It’s like he’s being financially disciplined from two directions at once. The courts on one side, the markets on the other.

 Are you kidding me right now? Let me explain how we got here. Because this is a story about the New York civil fraud case. You know, the one where a judge found that Trump and his company massively inflated the value of his properties to get better loans and lower taxes. The judge ordered Trump to pay over $450 million. Yeah. Over $450 million. That’s the judgment.

 Plus interest that keeps growing every day. Now, Trump’s appealing, which is his right. But here’s the thing. When you appeal a judgment that big, you have to post a bond. It’s basically insurance to make sure that if you lose the appeal, the other side can actually collect the money.

 Originally, the court wanted Trump to post the full amount, the whole $450 million plus. Trump’s lawyers said he couldn’t do it. They literally went to court and said, “When we tried 30 different bonding companies, and nobody will give us a bond that big.” So, the appeals court cut him a break. They lowered it to $175 million.

 And Trump posted the bond. But here’s what that actually means. That $175 million isn’t sitting in Trump’s bank account anymore. It’s in a restricted account controlled by the bonding company and the court. Trump cannot touch it at all. Not while the appeal is pending. And if Trump loses the appeal, New York takes that money immediately and then they move on to his properties because the state already has leans recorded against Trump Tower, his golf courses, his other buildings.

 They’re ready to seize them if the judgment stands. So yeah, Trump has a huge chunk of his personal wealth frozen right now. not frozen by Wall Street in some conspiracy theory way, frozen by a court legally because he’s appealing a massive fraud judgment. Come on, think about that for a second. The president of the United States has $175 million of his own money locked in a court-controlled account, and the state of New York is standing by ready to take his properties if he loses.

 That’s real financial pressure. That’s not theoretical. That’s happening right now. But wait, there’s more. Because while all this is going on, Trump’s out there making wild threats about tariffs and Greenland and trade wars, and Wall Street is not having it. Earlier this week, Trump threatened eight European countries with massive escalating tariffs unless they agreed to his demands about Greenland.

 Yeah, Greenland. He wants Denmark to give him Greenland, and he’s willing to blow up trade with Europe to get it. And what happened? Markets tanked. European indexes dropped. US stocks fell. Investors fled to gold and other safeassets. billions of dollars in value just gone. Then Trump showed up at Davos and said he had a framework deal and the tariffs were off.

 And what happened? Markets bounced right back. The Dow jumped. The S&P 500 recovered. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. And you know what commentators started calling this? Taco. Trump always chickens out because this is his pattern now. He makes some insane threat. Markets panic. He backs down. Markets recover over and over.

 So Trump’s getting hit from both sides. The courts have locked down his money. and the markets are punishing him in real time every time he does something reckless. This is not a good position for a president to be in. This is absolutely not a good position. All right, let’s dig into exactly what’s happening with Trump’s money because this is complicated and a lot of people don’t understand how appeal bonds work.

When a judge orders you to pay a massive judgment, you don’t just write a check and move on, especially if you’re planning to appeal. Because if you pay the judgment and then win on appeal, it’s a nightmare trying to get your money back. So, the court lets you post a bond instead. It’s like saying, “Okay, you don’t have to pay right now, but you have to prove you can pay if you lose the appeal.

” For regular people, you go to a bonding company. They charge you a fee, usually a percentage of the bond amount, and they guarantee the money. If you lose your appeal, the bonding company pays the judgment, and then they come after you to get their money back. But Trump’s not a regular person. He had a $450 million judgment against him, plus interest, growing every day.

 And Trump’s lawyers went to court and basically said, “We can’t get a bond this big. We tried. Nobody will do it.” Which, by the way, is pretty embarrassing for someone who claims to be a billionaire. If you’re really worth5 billion or 10 billion like Trump says, getting a $450 million bond shouldn’t be that hard, but apparently it is.

 So, the appeals court lowered the bond to $175 million, and Trump posted it. Now, here’s what that means in practical terms. Trump had to come up with $175 million in cash. Not property, not theoretical net worth, actual cash. And that cash is now sitting in a restricted account. Trump cannot access that money. He cannot invest it. He cannot spend it.

 He cannot use it for anything. It’s locked down by the court. And if Trump loses his appeal, New York takes it. All $175 million gone. But that’s not even the worst part because New York isn’t stopping at $175 million. The full judgment is over $450 million. So if Trump loses, New York can take the bond money and then immediately start seizing his properties to cover the rest. And they’re ready to do it.

 The state has already filed leans against Trump Tower in Manhattan, his golf course in Westchester, his properties in other locations. The paperwork is done. The leans are recorded. All New York has to do is execute on them. So Trump’s sitting there as president knowing that a huge chunk of his personal wealth is locked down.

 And if he loses this appeal, the state of New York is going to start taking his buildings. That’s got to be stressful, right? Like that’s got to be weighing on him. And you can see it in his behavior because Trump’s been erratic lately more than usual. He’s making wild threats. He’s pushing extreme policies.

 He’s lashing out at anyone who criticizes him. And Wall Street is noticing. Let me tell you what happened this week. Trump decided that he wants Greenland, which is not new. He’s been talking about Greenland for years. But this time, he escalated it. He threatened eight European countries with massive tariffs unless they got on board with his Greenland plan.

 Think about that. Trump was willing to blow up trade relationships with some of our closest allies because he wants a giant ice sheet that belongs to Denmark. And the markets freaked out. European indexes dropped. US stocks fell. Investors started dumping equities and buying gold because they were worried Trump was about to start a trade war with Europe. This wasn’t a slow decline.

This was immediate. As soon as Trump’s threats became public, the markets reacted. Billions of dollars in value wiped out, just gone because Trump couldn’t control himself. And then he went to Davos and he announced that he had a framework deal. The tariffs were off. Everything was fine. Crisis averted and the markets bounced right back.

 The Dow jumped. The S&P 500 recovered. Everyone acted like nothing happened. But here’s the thing. Something did happen. The market sent Trump a message. They said, “We don’t like your chaos. We don’t like your unpredictability and if you keep doing this, we’re going to punish you. And Trump backed down because he had to.

 Now people are calling this taco. Trump always chickens out. It’s become a meme because this is Trump’s pattern. He makes some extreme threat. Markets tank. He walks it back.Markets recover. He did it with Mexico tariffs. He did it with China. He did it with NATO. And now he’s doing it with Europe over Greenland. Come on.

 This is embarrassing for him. He wants to look tough and unpredictable, but what he’s actually doing is creating chaos and then retreating every time the markets react badly. And the reason he’s retreating is because he can’t afford the fallout. Literally, he’s got $175 million locked down in New York. He’s got leans on his properties.

 He’s got legal bills piling up from multiple cases. He needs markets to stay stable because if they tank, his own net worth takes a hit. So, Trump’s trapped. He’s financially exposed because of the New York judgment. and he’s being disciplined by markets that won’t tolerate his chaos. It’s like he’s being squeezed from both sides.

 The courts on one end, the markets on the other, and he’s running out of room to maneuver. Are you kidding me right now? This is the president of the United States we’re talking about. And he’s making policy decisions partly based on whether Wall Street will freak out and hurt his personal wealth. That’s a conflict of interest.

 That’s a huge conflict of interest. But nobody’s doing anything about it. Congress isn’t stepping in. The courts are focused on the fraud case and Trump’s just out there trying to balance being president with protecting his own fortune. This is wild. This is absolutely wild. Okay, so what does all this mean going forward? Where does the story go from here? Let’s start with the court controlled money, the $175 million bond that’s locked down until Trump’s appeal is decided.

 And that appeal could take months, maybe longer. So for the foreseeable future, Trump has a giant chunk of his personal wealth frozen. He can’t touch it. He can’t use it. It’s just sitting there in a restricted account under court control. And if Trump loses the appeal, it’s over. New York takes the money and then they move on his properties.

 The leans are already filed. The state just has to execute on them. Trump Tower in Manhattan, the state could seize it. His golf course in Westchester could be taken. His other properties with leans, all vulnerable. Now, Trump’s lawyers will fight every step of the way. They’ll file motions. They’ll ask for stays.

 They’ll delay as long as possible. But ultimately, if the judgment stands, New York can and will take his assets. That’s how court judgments work. You can’t just ignore them. So, Trump’s under real financial pressure, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Now, let’s talk about Wall Street because the market reaction to Trump’s chaos is fascinating.

 Wall Street doesn’t care about politics the way we do. They don’t care if Trump’s a Republican or a Democrat or whatever. They care about stability. They care about predictability. They care about knowing what’s coming so they can plan accordingly. And Trump is the opposite of that. He’s chaotic. He’s unpredictable.

 He makes wild threats and then walks them back. He announces policies on social media without consulting anyone. And the markets hate it. Every time Trump does something extreme, investors get nervous. They start selling. They move money into safer assets like gold and bonds. And then when Trump backs down, they rush back into stocks. The markets recover.

everything’s fine until the next time Trump loses it. This creates a pattern. Trump threatens, markets drop, Trump retreats, markets recover, and Trump’s learning that he can’t afford too many of these cycles. Because every time the markets tank, his own wealth takes a hit, his properties lose value, his brand takes damage, his ability to secure financing gets harder.

 So, the markets are effectively disciplining Trump. They’re teaching him that there are limits to what he can do before investors start bailing. And here’s the crazy part. It’s working. Trump backed down on the Greenland tariffs. He backed down on other threats before. He’s learning that Wall Street has power over him.

 Not because they’re freezing his assets or conspiring against him, but because their collective reaction to his chaos creates real financial consequences that he can’t ignore. So, we’ve got this bizarre situation where the president of the United States is being financially constrained in two ways. The courts have literally locked down part of his money and the markets are punishing him every time he goes too far. This is unprecedented.

 We’ve never had a president in this position before. We’ve never had someone running the country while also dealing with a massive civil fraud judgment, frozen assets, and market pressure all at the same time. And it’s affecting his decision-making. It has to be because Trump knows that if he pushes too hard, if he creates too much chaos, the markets will tank.

 And when the markets tank, his own wealth suffers. And with $175 million already frozen and more at risk, he can’t afford to take too many hits. So what happens next? Well,Trump’s appeal in the New York fraud case is pending. That could take months to decide. Until then, the $175 million stays frozen, and the leans on his properties stay in place.

 If he wins the appeal, great. He gets his money back. The leans go away. Financial pressure eases. But if he loses, then it’s game over. New York takes the money and starts seizing properties. And Trump’s net worth takes a massive hit. On the market side, Trump’s going to keep making threats. That’s just who he is. He can’t help himself.

 But he’s also going to keep backing down when the markets react badly because he’s learned that Wall Street has power over him. So, we’re going to see more taco moments. Trump always chickens out. He’ll threaten. Markets will drop. He’ll retreat. Markets will recover over and over. And every time it happens, Trump’s credibility takes another hit.

 Because world leaders are learning that his threats are often empty. They just have to wait him out, wait for the markets to freak out, wait for Trump to back down. That’s not a strong negotiating position for a president. That’s actually pretty weak. So, here’s the bottom line. Trump has real financial problems right now.

Courts have locked down a big chunk of his money. Leans are filed on his properties. He’s one lost appeal away from having assets seized. And on top of that, markets are watching his every move and punishing him when he goes too far, not by freezing his assets or conspiring against him, but by selling off stocks and creating chaos that hurts his own wealth.

 Trump’s being squeezed from the courts and from the markets, and he’s running out of room to maneuver. This is the financial reality of Trump’s second term. He’s not operating from a position of strength. He’s operating from a position of vulnerability and the courts and markets are both making that very clear. So yeah, keep your eyes on the New York appeals court and keep your eyes on Wall Street because Trump’s financial situation is shaping his presidency in ways that most people don’t fully understand.

 He’s not just making decisions based on policy or politics. He’s making decisions based on protecting his own money. And when the president of the United States is that financially exposed, yeah, that’s a problem. That’s a huge problem. This is wild.