New York might soon have more reasons than the potential trucker boycott to regret the recent multimillion-dollar fraud ruling against former President Donald Trump.
Last week, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the leading GOP presidential candidate to pay $355 million in damages for supposedly using false and inflated values for his properties on financial statements.
Fox Business reported Wednesday that the massive judgment against Trump is having serious consequences that the Empire State seemingly never foresaw.
Among these consequences is the exit of prominent real estate investor Grant Cardone of Cardone’s Capital, who spoke about his plans on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.
“We thought this year was the opportunity to come into Chicago, California and New York City,” Cardone told host Steven Doocy. “I’ve been waiting for 40 years now to invest in that marketplace. … And when that ruling happened, it was like, ‘Pencils down. Don’t touch it. Don’t go there.’”
Instead, as he informed his team in a Tuesday post on X, he decided to “discontinue ALL underwriting on New York City real estate.”
“The risk outweigh the opportunities at this time,” Cardone said. “Recent political decisions will continue to deteriorate price and benefit states that don’t have these challenges. Focus on Texas & Florida.”
Dear Cardone Capital team,
Immediately discontinue ALL underwriting on New York City real estate. The risk outweigh the opportunities at this time.
Recent political decisions will continue to deteriorate price and benefit states that don’t have these challenges.
Focus on Texas… pic.twitter.com/nTdJ5d4dO5
— Grant Cardone (@GrantCardone) February 20, 2024
As he explained to Doocy, “We invest for 14,000 investors at Cardone Capital that depend on cash flow. And if I can’t predict the cash flow because of some ruling, or because of the migrants, or because I can’t evict people — New York City just keeps doing every single thing they can to sell real estate in Florida and not sell real estate in New York.”
Should more investors send New York a message?
According to Cardone, this ruling is going to cause a ripple effect that will ultimately prove harmful to New York.
“We were going to put $1 billion in New York City this year,” he said. “We were going to put $1 billion in Chicago and maybe another billion in Los Angeles. And we won’t touch any of them now.”
Perhaps New York Attorney General Letitia James should have thought more about the good of her state.
Instead, she mindlessly pursued a vendetta against Trump — as she had promised to do when running for her office.
During her campaign in 2018, James called him an “illegitimate president” and said her decision to run for attorney general was largely “about that man in the White House who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights,” The New York Times reported at the time.
Nobody is above the law, not even @realDonaldTrump.
Forcing the nation’s top law enforcement official to resign doesn’t give him a free pass—it only raises suspicions.
I want NYers to know I‘ll hold those in power accountable & make sure the Special Counsel’s work continues.
— Tish James (@TishJames) November 7, 2018
For years, blue states and cities have been some of the worst places for businesses, thanks to their oppressive taxes and regulations (not to mention the increase in crime over the past few years).
But the Trump ruling shows that businesses in Democrat-run areas not only have to be mindful of the obstacle course of their taxes and regulations but also must be looking over their shoulder for selective prosecutions.
No one can confidently operate or invest in a business if he or she runs the risk of falling on the wrong side of the political divide and then getting bankrupted in a clearly rigged court case.
It’s much easier to take your business to a much-less-restrictive red state than it is to try and conform to a blue state’s draconian and impenetrable bureaucratic red tape.
James’ Trump Derangement Syndrome blinded her to the potentially disastrous consequences of the fraud case for New York.
