Trump ridiculed over claim Mar-a-Lago is worth more than Buckingham Palace

Former US president Donald Trump was hit with some pretty bad news on Friday, as a New York judge ordered the businessman, his sons and their Trump Organization associates to fork out more than $364 million in a lengthy fraud case brought by the city’s attorney general, Letitia Wright.

Judge Arthur Engoron had already found Trump to be liable for fraud for allegedly inflating the value of his properties and other assets in a partial judgment back in September, with this week’s decision relating to the punishment the politician and other defendants would be issued with as a result.

At that earlier stage, Engoron said Trump had overvalued Mar-a-Lago by saying it was worth a hefty $612 million, when an assessor found it was actually valued at up to $27 million.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” he said.

Predictably, Trump wasn’t happy with that, and in October fumed that Mar-a-Lago is “worth a billion”.

Speaking outside the courtroom, he said: “A billion and a half, $750 million, it’s worth a fortune – most expensive house, probably, in the world.

“And they said it was worth 18 million dollars and they don’t do anything about it.”

He ranted again when he was slapped with the fine this week, penning a Truth Social post which branded Engoron “crooked”, James “totally corrupt” and claimed the order was based on “nothing other than having built a GREAT COMPANY”.

“ELECTION INTERFERENCE. WITCH HUNT,” he said, following it up with comments on the steps of Mar-a-Lago later where he said he had filed “one of the greatest financial statements” ever.

Though it was Trump’s bizarre valuation of his Florida home which was ridiculed online following the judgment, as the “most expensive house” in the world is actually Buckingham Palace, which several outlets report is worth an estimated $4.9 billion:

Another blow to Trump this week was the rejection of his attorney’s bid to have the court case concerning hush money payments dismissed altogether, with New York judge Juan Merchan confirming the former president will face a criminal trial on 25 March.

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