I am not American, so it might be the phrasing that confuses me.

But is the 10% returned to the defendant? Or that's a flat fee that the bondsman take?

If that is the latter, then I understand why people are questioning why Trump is using a bondsman since he supposedly have the cash to cover the full bond that he will get back once he shows up.

So either he plans to fuck off so he saved 90% of his bond, or he's having cashflow issues.

If it's the former, then it make total sense to use a bondsman regardless of your fortune.

And they get their pay normally by keeping the 10% from the defendant. If the defendant skips town, they lose the other 90% unless they can locate the defendant and get them back to court.

It's not a loan

It pretty much is

https://www.sevenslegal.com/criminal-attorney/bail-bail-bonds-work/418/

HOW BAIL BONDS WORK

Bail bonds are similar to personal loans. After putting down a small percentage for the total amount, a bail bondsman or agent, gives you the rest of the money needed for your bail. Like a loan officer, this bail bondsman or agent is similar to the lender of a personal loan.

As an example, if your bail is $15,000, you or a family member would be required to make a deposit of $2,000. The bail bondsman or agent would then give you the $15,000 bail needed for you to “post bail.” Most bail bond companies also will require you to provide them with some type of collateral in order to get the remaining money needed for your bail bond. Collateral is usually a deed to your house, item of jewelry, or car. This collateral is used in order to secure the bail bonds’ loan in case you don’t show up at your appointed court date, in which case you would not get your money back. After your trial is over, and you receive your money back from the court, the money is returned to bail bond company you received your bail from.

Due to the fact that this is a financial risk the bail bondsman and bail bond company take because of this loan, they will often take additional precautions to make sure you attend all of your court dates. The bail bondsman wants to make sure his or her company receives back all the bail money it loaned you. As a result of these precautions, bail bond companies will frequently do the following:

Prefer a relative or friend put up the necessary collateral for your bond. This is because you will then be less likely to miss a court date since your relative’s or friend’s house or property is on the line in for your bail bond. Call you before each court date in order to remind your about your upcoming trial. Require you to make periodic check-ins at their bail bond office to make sure you haven’t left town. Like most defendants, you will probably agree that these precautions are a small prices to pay in order to be able to stay out of jail while waiting for a trial date or during your trial.

If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount

I'm curious, does the bondsman actually give the court cash, or just guarantee that they will if the defendant doesn't show? And if that is the case, do they bond out more people than they actually have cash to cover, knowing that it is unlikely that they'll ever have to cover all those positions?