Jon Stewart mocks claims Trump’s multi-million-dollar New York fraud is ‘victimless’
‘The only immoral practice, apparently, in the capitalist system is to use that money for people who may need it’
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Your support makes all the difference.Jon Stewart has skewered claims that Donald Trump’s multi-million dollar fraud was a “victimless crime.”
The former president’s New York fraud case has been branded as an incident with no victims, particularly by commentators on Fox News.
The Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary even declared that everything Mr Trump was found liable for in the civil fraud case “is done by every real estate developer everywhere on Earth in every city. This has never ever been prosecuted.”
“Leave it to Kevin O’Leary to be unaware enough to say the quiet part out loud,” Stewart responded incredulously on The Daily Show.
“There is a theory in law that if enough people commit a crime, it automatically becomes legal. You’re familiar with The Purge, are you not?” Stewart joked before saying, “The f****** entitled arrogance.”
A judge has ordered Mr Trump to pay $464m for a decade-long scheme in which prosecutors alleged he falsely inflated the values of Trump Organisation assets to obtain loans.
“It was all part of a very sophisticated real estate practice known as ‘lying’,” Stewart joked.
The one-term president was ordered to pay the multi-million fraud bond by Monday but a panel of state Appellate Division judges unexpectedly granted him a 10-day extension to pay just $175m of the total judgment.
Despite the ruling, many have come forward in support of the former president, and people such as Mr O’Leary even questioned on CNN, “Who’s next?” after the ruling “didn’t go over very well with the investment community.”
“Ah ‘who’s next’, the persecuted minority of the investment community,” Stewart taunted.
“I am surprised to hear this from Kevin O’Leary, the guy who’s such an a****** that even the other people on Shark Tank think he’s an a******,” said Stewart before rolling a series of clips from the business pitching show, where Mr O’Leary ridicules budding entrepreneurs for their own overvaluations.
Ultimately, Stewart rejected the idea that what Mr Trump did was victimless, saying that the banks were paid back at lower interest rates - “although to be honest, who gives a s***,” Stewart added.
More paramount to Stewart, however, was the principle of what Mr Trump did.
“Money isn’t infinite,” he said. “A loan that goes to the liar doesn’t go to someone who is giving a more honest evaluation, so the system becomes incentivised for corruption.”
Stewart concluded by pouring cold water over the bizarre claims that committing fraud does not lead to some sort of consequence, especially to the detriment of someone else.
“I don’t know if you know this, but most people just can’t commit fraud and expect to face no repercussions, even if everyone’s doing it,” Stewart started.
“Try getting a car loan by saying you have 10 times as much money as you really do. Or claim 20 dependents when you have no children. Or say you make slightly less money to qualify for food assistance. I will guarantee you, there are not just financial consequences for those lies, but criminal ones,” he said.
“But don’t tell that to the investment community, because in their minds, in pursuit of profit, there is no rule that cannot be bent, there is no principle that cannot be undercut, as long as you and your f****** friends make money.
“And the only immoral practice, apparently, in the capitalist system is to use that money for people who may need it,” he said, showing clips of times US citizens have been the centre of news stories for “abusing the system” to feed their family and using food stamps.
Based on that logic, Stewart concluded: “Stealing is only justified when you already have too much.”
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