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How a California billionaire known for auto loans provided Trump’s bond

Don Hankey, who made a fortune offering high-interest auto loans to customers with poor credit, said providing the $175 million bond to Trump is a good business deal

By Michael Kranish

 and 

Jonathan O'Connell

April 2, 2024 at 7:06 p.m. EDT

Don Hankey, chairman of Westlake Financial Services, in Los Angeles in 2018. (Ringo Chiu/ZUMAPRESS.com)

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As former president Donald Trump struggled last month to post a bond for more than $450 million to keep authorities from seizing his properties, California billionaire Don Hankey and his wife, Debbi, started discussing a solution: Hankey’s business could cover it.

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Hankey, a Trump supporter who made a fortune providing high-interest auto loans to customers with poor credit, soon reached out to Trump’s team to negotiate a deal that would allow Trump to stay the penalty while he appealed a massive New York civil fraud judgment. But when a court reduced the bond to $175 million last week and Trump said he had the cash to post it himself, the matter seemed moot, Hankey told The Washington Post.

Then, to his surprise, the Trump team last week revived the talks and asked Hankey if he would back the new amount. Hankey promptly agreed. He said that his company is charging Trump a “modest fee,” which he declined to disclose, and that the arrangement allowed Trump to hold onto his money, adding, “At least he’s getting interest on his collateral.”

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With the bond, which Trump posted Monday, Hankey appears to have facilitated a final step in Trump’s narrow escape from a cash crunch that a few weeks ago had the New York attorney general vowing to come after his assets and experts wondering if he would have to file for bankruptcy as he faced more than half a billion dollars in penalties from two civil cases, with only weeks to find the money.

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The financial boost for the presumed GOP nominee has thrust Hankey into the midst of a presidential campaign, bringing a new national profile to a colorful 80-year-old worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes, who worked his way from car salesman to major player in the car loan industry and owner of Xanadu, formerly Olivia Newton-John’s Malibu estate. If Trump is elected, their relationship could come under new scrutiny if the government is involved in matters affecting Hankey’s business.

Hankey said the bond, which was provided by one of his companies, a subsidiary of Knight Insurance, was a good business deal, not a political statement.