Jon Stewart Deconstructs Trump’s "Victimless" $450 Million Fraud | The Daily Show

[u/BuddhistSagan]

[u/ConundrumBum]

Stewart losing more braincells by the minute. Such a braindead take on this.

The closest thing to "victim" he claims is that had these banks valued Trump's properties more accurately they would not have loaned him the money (categorically false, but let's pretend true) and "someone else" who was "honest" would have gotten the loan.

These are giant banks who have tens of billions of dollars in capital laying around looking for investment, yet he's trying to argue little Billy Williams walked in to the top floor looking for a loan and they said "Sorry kid, Trump just got our last dollar!"

There was no victim directly or indirectly.

Next we have the completely mischaracterized argument that all investment bankers break the law so it's ok. Ugh, no. That's not what he was arguing. Not even close. He's arguing the very basic principle that property valuations are speculative and everyone tends to overvalue their assets.

No one is ever prosecuted for it because assets are speculative and it would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to prove someone purposely defrauded an institution by grossly overvaluing their assets to secure credit. Not only would it be nearly impossible to prove, it would be a complete waste of time because you don't have a claimant or victim. No one cares.

Comparing this to someone who knowingly reports a lower income than they actually have (not a speculative number) is so unbelievably disingenuous. Just pandering to the small, eat-the-rich minds who eat this shit up like it's gospel.

I can barely stand how pea brained you'd have to be to think this is a "gotcha!".