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Supposedly there was some billionaires trying to raise enough for Trump bond before it was reduced. Which of course raises the question of influence in exchange for $$ even more.

That said, to me there is at least a plausible argument that reducing the bond is reasonable. The point of a bond is to ensure the amount gets paid while the appeal process goes through, and to make it so people have to commit something to actually appeal (otherwise everything would get appealed 100% of the time).

A bond isn't however supposed to cause irreparable harm. Seizing his assets and auctioning them off is what should happen to satisfy the judgment, but that seems close to irreparable harm to have to do that to appeal. What happens if Trump wins on appeal? They can't unsell the buildings or golf courses.

The fact that there's a court appointed monitor watching everything that goes on in the Trump org makes it less likely they'll be able to hide assets and will have the info they need to seize things if Trump loses the appeal.

But rather than just reducing the bond maybe they could have done something else that would have resulted in real estate being tied up or bank accounts frozen but held waiting for the appeal results. Or maybe that's just not possible.

All that said the fact that Trump lied saying he had the cash to me should enter into it as well... If he says he can pay, then can't, well maybe just too bad so sad.

Or maybe the court figured there'd be a plausible path for Trump to argue the 8th Amendment if they left it.