Donald Trump's Major Money Issues Left His Kids Having To Bail Him Out More Than Once
Donald Trump is pretty stingy for a billionaire. Forbes estimated the president's net worth to be approximately $5.1 billion as of 2025. And yet, the controversial politician's children have had to bail him out on more than one occasion. Unsurprisingly, most of Donald's money is tied up in real estate, and bonding companies aren't too keen to accept it as collateral. This became a considerable problem during his New York civil fraud lawsuit, which saw Donald Trump faced with a massive fine and a business ban, and he had a little bit of trouble putting up the $454 million bond. At the time, the former "Apprentice" host's lawyers called it "a practical impossibility" (via CNN), while social media was rife with commentators poking fun at the president's financial woes.
As one quipped on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Trump's probably wondering why Jared and Ivanka's phones are going straight to voicemail," likely referring to the previous, widely publicized instance in which Donald's adult children helped him out financially. In 2011, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump all lent their famous father a helping hand when he needed cash for collateral. This came to light when Ivanka took the stand during Donald's civil fraud suit.
During a 2023 MSNBC interview, legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained, "What we learned today is that behind the scenes, Donald Trump entered into an agreement with each of his three adult children, whereby they pledged assets of their own to help him satisfy the guarantee, which, according to his contract with Deutsche Bank, was supposed to be his and his alone," (via Salon). She added, "He was literally borrowing money from his kids' piggy banks in order to satisfy Deutsche Bank that he had enough money to borrow from them what he had."
The Trump children have had their fair share of loans from their father as well
In the Trump family, the concept of tit for tat seems to be alive and well. And, as his New York fraud case rambled on, Donald Trump's financial dynamics grew even more public. As it turned out, the controversial politician gave his children some loans over the years, and Donald appeared to have sweetened the deal with some good old tax evasion, which he'd been so smart about that it bordered on being legal. That's but the tip of the iceberg, however. Those in the know will already be aware that Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner live an insanely lavish life, but that doesn't mean they want to pay their own legal bills — especially if the public can do it for them. This is exactly what happened when Ivanka found herself saddled with enormous legal expenses as she got caught up in the lawsuits against the Trump Organization.
Instead of paying them herself (which should've easily been possible, given that Ivanka and her husband are worth more than $1 billion combined), she piggy-backed on her father's Save America PAC. The organization ultimately handled Ivanka's whopping $2.3 million in legal fees in 2023. Additionally, it covered another $5.3 million in supplementary legal fees, including lawyers for all three Trump children in the fraud trial. If you're wondering how this was even legal, well, the president founded the super-PAC in question on the principle of garnering funds for what Donald deemed his "election defense" after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Unsurprisingly, the money the group spent on the Trump children and the Trump Organization's legal fees, not to mention those of the man himself, had nothing to do with appealing his election loss.