Donald Trump is much less rich today than when he was elected president
Trump is less wealthy than in 2016, according to Forbes magazine
President Donald Trump said in October 2019 that being president is costing him money. Lots.
"If I lost $ 2 billion, $ 5 billion or less, it doesn't make any difference," Trump said. "I do not care. I am doing this for the country. I'm doing it for the people, ”he said.
Well, he definitely cares. And now we know - thanks to the new Forbes 400 list released Tuesday - how much less wealthy Trump is today than when he ran and won the presidency in 2016.
Why did Trump's fortune fall?
In 2016, Trump was worth $ 3.7 billion, according to Forbes. That figure dropped to $ 3.1 billion in 2017 and held through 2018 and 2019. But this year Trump's net worth fell to $ 2.5 billion. That $ 600 million decline took Trump from being the 275th richest person in America in 2019 to the 352nd richest in 2020, a drop of 77 places. (It took a net worth of $ 2.1 billion to make the 400 list.)
Why the fall of Trump's fortune? The coronavirus pandemic. "The value of office buildings, hotels and resorts has been affected amid the pandemic," says the Forbes statement on Trump's wealth.
Now, $ 2.5 billion is still a lot of money. I mean, A LOT of money. And being one of the 400 richest people in America is quite an exclusive undertaking. But if you don't think the decline in his overall wealth and his position on the Forbes 400 list will irritate Trump, then you don't know him.
This excerpt, from Jonathan Greenberg, a former Forbes reporter, makes clear how much Trump cares:
“In May 1984, an official from the Trump Organization called me to tell me how rich Donald J. Trump was. I was reporting for the Forbes 400, the magazine's annual ranking of America's Richest People, for the third year. In the previous issue, we valued Trump's assets at $ 200 million, just a fifth of what he claimed to own in our interviews. This time, his assistant insisted on the phone, I needed to understand how lined Trump really was.
"The official was John Barron, a name we now know as an alter ego of Trump himself."
Bragging of fortune
So central is Trump's wealth to his self-perception that he put on a great show of how much money he had during the speech in which he announced his presidential candidacy in 2016.
"And I have assets - a large accounting firm, one of the most respected - (for) $ 9.24 billion," Trump told the audience at Trump Tower in June 2015. He added, "So I have wealth. Net total, and now with the increase, it will be much more than $ 10 billion. But here, a total net worth of - net worth, not assets, no - a net worth, after all debt, after all expenses, the biggest assets (are) Trump Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Bank building. of America in San Francisco, 40 Wall Street, sometimes known as the Trump Building right across from New York, many other places around the world. So the total is $ 8,737,540.00. (When Trump said these words, he waved a document like, uh, proof, or something.)
"I'm really rich," he said in that speech, and later made it clear that all this talk about his money was not for bragging. Because you know what? I don't have to brag. I don't have to, believe it or not, ”he said.
(Narrator: I don't think so).
A month after that announcement, Trump was upping the ante, literally. His campaign issued a statement that read:
“Mr. Trump's net worth has increased since the more than a year old financial statement presented in his presidential announcement. Real estate values in New York City, San Francisco, Miami, and many other places where he owns property have risen considerably during this period. His debt is a very small percentage of the value and with very low interest rates. As of this date, Mr. Trump's net worth exceeds TEN BILLION DOLLARS. "
Life changes fast
You'll notice that just around the time Trump claimed a net worth of $ 10 billion, Forbes, which is the gold standard, ahem, when it comes to wealth, pegged his fortune at less than half that number (US $ 3.7 billion).
Why the discrepancy? Well, look no further than this explanation from Trump on how he calculates his value: “My net worth fluctuates and rises and falls with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try… yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going ... and that can change quickly from one day to the next.
In short: Life changes fast!
Expert: Court reminds Trump that he is not immune
Trump's need - and it is a need - to be very, very rich is widely regarded as one of the main reasons why he remains unwilling to release any of his previous tax returns, being the first president in the later era. to Watergate in enjoying that ignominious distinction. The speculation is that Trump knows his profits would show him considerably less wealthy than he has bragged for years and, in doing so, reduce his appeal to voters who are attracted to his money and his exaggerated attitude.
"They always call the other side 'the elite'. Why are they elite? ”Trump rhetorically asked at a Minnesota campaign rally in 2018.“ I have a much better apartment than them. I am smarter than them. I am richer than them. I became president and they did not, ”he added.
The richer, the more wrong the others
Remember that the story that Donald Trump tells himself from his own life is that he is a self-made billionaire - he ignores that "little" loan of $ 1 million his father gave him when he left college. - whose wealth is proof that he is better than all the people who looked down on him and made fun of him over the years.
"My whole life has really been a 'no' and I fought against it," Trump said at a New Hampshire town hall in October 2015. "It has not been easy for me, it has not been easy for me," he remarked.
In Trump's mind, the richer he is, the more people he has proven wrong. Wealth equals claim. And that's why a decline in wealth, like the one he experienced last year, will bother him so much.
