Donald Trump may be rich, but forking out more than $500 million hurts even him. Aside from the ridiculously massive $83 million second defamation settlement awarded to E. Jean Carroll recently, Trump was hit Friday by New York Judge Democrat hack Arthur Engoron with an utterly disproportionate fine of $355 million plus perhaps $100 million in interest for “defrauding” banks and real estate companies in New York City real estate deals. And he must pay that fine before he can appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, even though he may and should win that appeal.

Trump’s Truth Social post was simple and to the point: “Eighth Amendment: Excessive bail shall not be required, no excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Obviously, this is an excessive fine because, as we said Friday, though he falsely inflated the value of his real estate holdings, sometimes flagrantly, this is a “crime” with no victim. Banks gave him loans after due review and revaluation. He repaid the loans. No one lost any money. If any fine at all was in order, it should have been a tiny fraction of the one Engoron imposed. On top of that, however, he barred Trump from related business and loan applications in New York for three years and his sons for two years.

Remember, this case began because when Letitia James ran for New York attorney general, she campaigned in part on a promise to get Trump for something. She’d fill in the details later, finally settling on a civil suit over a victimless crime.

The legal outrage is apparent to non-Democrats, but again, the problem is that Trump is going to be out a lot of money just to make his appeal, and he can’t use campaign money to pay the bill.

“Basically, in the two relevant jurisdictions, a defendant who has been found guilty has 30 days to appeal,” explains legal expert Andrew McCarthy. “But unlike in the criminal system, there is no automatic right to appeal civilly. Rather, a defendant has to post the amount of the judgment, plus interest, in order to assure the court that the appeal is not simply for purposes of delay, and that the defendant will pay up if he loses.”

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley concurs: “In order to file an appeal, the courts require a deposit for the full amount of the damages or a bond covering the full amount. … It can be challenging enough for many companies drained from years of litigation. For Donald Trump, the demand for $355 million plus $100 million in interest could force a fire sale on properties to pony up just the deposit.”

James said she’ll just take his stuff: “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.”

Turley adds, “By making the fine so large, Engoron not only makes an appeal difficult, but could guarantee that Trump will lose tens of millions even if his judgment is dramatically reduced or tossed out.”

While this harsh penalty is solely because the defendant’s last name is Trump, other businesses considering investments in New York may decide not to take that chance. Costs, taxes, regulations, and crime are all lower elsewhere already, and if there’s now a risk of being mugged by the legal system, why come to the Big Apple?

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is aware of this, telling other businesses this week that there’s “nothing to worry about” because other people and businesses are “very different than Donald Trump.”

The process is the punishment here, and if Trump somehow loses on appeal, then all the better. It seems clear that Engoron deliberately inflated the judgment not because the case merited it but so as to make the process all that much more painful.

Trump has about a little more than three weeks to decide on an appeal. Will Team Trump appeal at the federal level on Eighth Amendment grounds? And would a federal court even take that up? That remains to be seen.

Update 2/22: Trump’s attorneys requested a 30-day extension on the due date for paying the $355 million-plus fine. Engoron denied the request.

As for a New York appeal, that’s also a crapshoot. Part of Engoron’s judgment was a conclusion of fact that Trump defrauded banks and real estate companies. That is unlikely to be overturned. It’s also unlikely that a higher court would toss the case on grounds of selective prosecution, even though everyone knows that’s exactly what happened. Thus, any appeal would largely end up being the two sides haggling over the price of the fine.

There’s no question that Trump is up against a rigged and two-tiered “justice” system run by deranged Democrats. But here’s the worse news: Rigged or not, the defamation and real estate cases, combined with battles to remove him from state ballots and four felony indictments for 91 counts, put Trump in very real fiscal and legal peril.