Yes I know. One was $5 million, the second $83 million. Total $88 million and change. I predict he pays neither of them. At least until he leaves office anyway.
The whole point of Trump placing the award in escrow is so there’s no delay once all the appeals are made. It isn’t Trump’s decision to release the funds, is it? The court can order the institution holding the funds to release them. Right?
It’s going to go from his estate to her estate.
Yes, but with the interest, it’s going to end up well over $90M. I think the last estimate of the interest puts it closer to $100M than $90M
Personally pay? I suspect not.
But somebody will. The funds are in escrow. The current one paid by his law firm. The second judgment through a subsidiary of Chubb, who just happen to be making a ton of money insuring ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz (the open corruption sometimes still amazes me)
One of the previous appeals was to avoid doing putting any funds in escrow, once in effect saying “trust me” and another time saying putting up that kind of cash was unfair. The court did not buy any of those arguments.
Right. The courts required him to set up the escrows in order to pursue appeals on both judgments.
The funds are in escrow- which means they arent in trumps hands either.
He has yet to lose this battle. I swear, every damn time someone says “Trump lost!!”, when the court rules against him I want to scream. When she has the moneyand Trump stops fighting to get it back, you can finally put this in the win column, and not until then.
My prediction is she eventuallys get the money (the $5 million anyway) and he immediately sues her for some made-up grievance to get it back.
Would that be petty, stupid, a waste of everyone’s time and unprecedented? Yes. So classic Trump.
Even if she only uses the money to defend such a suit, it’s still a win for him, because she doesn’t get to spend it, especially not on women’s causes.
But if she can get it dismissed via an anti-SLAPP motion, he’ll owe her even more money. On the one hand, he really doesn’t seem to understand that the moment he pays her and stops trying to get it back, people will forget about it. OTOH, he might consider whatever this is costing him in legal fees to be worth it because it keeps his name in the media. As a general rule, I really don’t think he cares why his name gets mentioned as long as it gets mentioned.
He doesn’t care about owing money.
As you point out, the human beings behind at least one of the escrow funds are currently profiting greatly by being in Trump’s good graces. The same may be true of the individuals handling the other escrow fund, too.
They may fear the courts less than they fear Donald (and so may be dedicated to delaying the payout).
Those companies are the ones that paid into the accounts, not the ones controlling them. They cannot delay the payout in any direct fashion, only through appeal to the court
Stormy Daniels 
A thought - maybe in Trump’s mind, if he wins/breaks the cases, HE is the one to get the money, even if he didn’t put it up in the first place?
This would be entirely consistent with his mindset to date.
A report I saw online (YouTube, can’t track the source right now…take this with a grain of salt) said that, essentially, once SCOTUS declined to hear the case, his lawyers went back to the judge overseeing this dispersement and said, “hey…don’t pay this out because it’s still pending at SCOTUS,” then went back to the Supreme Court and filed for them to reconsider hearing the case. So, technically (I don’t know how true this actually is, again…a YouTube report), Trump’s attorneys lied to the judge by saying that it was still under appeal when it wasn’t, because that appeal to hear the case was filed after they told the judge that it had already been filed.
Anyway, they seemed to think that was the source of the delay: that Trump requested a delay while he waits for SCOTUS to reconsider hearing his appeal.
So the next time they say no will he get another delay while he asks again? It seems like he can keep this up forever.
What else is new? 
Trump is the poster boy for a vexatious litigant. He will never stop appealing so long as the legal system allows him to do so.
I mentioned this once during the interregnum:
- The Golden Rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules;
- Trump can only win or tie in situations like this. He fights these fights at the expense of either the taxpayers, wealthy donors, or red-hat rubes. If he gains something, then he gains something. If he loses entirely, then he was where he would otherwise have been without having fought.
It’s easy to litigate ad infinitum when other people foot the bill.
“But, Mom, Dad said to ask YOU.”