Enriched or ruined: where is Donald Trump's fortune?
If the revelation of his tax file has lifted a corner of the veil on the real fortune of the soon to be ex-president, it appears that the time spent in the White House was not a good deal for his companies.
"I'm very rich", Donald Trump liked to repeat in his 2016 electoral meetings. An assertion rarely detailed since, by the one who had first promised to publish his tax sheets once elected, before changing his mind under several successive pretexts. What arouse many suspicions on the real state of his fortune, but also on the sources of income of the Trump Organization, which oversees all the activities of the family dynasty. Doubts supported by the story of Donald Trump who in the 80s did not wait to become a billionaire to proclaim it loud and clear. "Very rich", it would still be, more than one could believe at one time, but much less than four years ago.
With the leak of his tax file in the press a few months ago, the estimates of the American president's fortune have been greatly refined. According to Forbes magazine, which lists the great fortunes in the United States, Donald Trump was in 2016 at the head of assets worth around $ 3.7 billion. An estimate lowered today to 2.5 billion dollars "only", this would be explained by the economic crisis born of the pandemic, for an empire largely built on tourism and entertainment.
A fortune also encumbered by a number of mortgages and assets pledged as collateral, to such an extent that the New York Times asked itself the question last September: "Is Donald Trump really a billionaire?", While documents from the tax administration revealed that his organization had paid 750 dollars (approximately 600 euros) in taxes for the year 2018, due to activities already in deficit before the onset of the pandemic.
The "Trump" brand, now "toxic"
For forty years, Donald Trump's biggest asset has been his name, his brand, plastered on the pediments of his buildings, hotels, golf courses, his business school, even ready-to-wear lines. -wearing and even bedding. "It was a successful commercial brand," a symbol of luxury ", wealth and success, said Melissa Aronczyk, professor of communication at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Before he became president, "the Trump brand was very powerful." So much so that many of the hotels bearing Donald Trump's name are in fact only operated under license.
But the four years of Trump's mandate, marked by extreme positions, and especially the last weeks marred by the assault on Capitol Hill by his fervent supporters, made the affairs of the dynasty perilous. The Trump brand has become "toxic" because associated with chaos, racism, summarizes Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, skeptical about the repositioning of the brand as the damage is significant.
A diagnosis that has been verified in recent days, as the disaffection of certain major clients of the Trump Organization has grown. Signature Bank has started shutting down accounts for the president, according to a spokeswoman, while Deutsche Bank no longer wants to do business with him, according to US media.
In New York, the Democratic mayor ended contracts that allowed the Trump Organization to run attractions in Central Park and a Bronx golf course. The 2022 PGA Golf Championship will not take place at the Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey. "Our brand was at stake," argued last week Seth Waugh, managing director of the organizing body. And if it is difficult to estimate precisely what will cost the company both the pandemic and the events of the Capitol, one certainty remains: the group is dragging a debt of some $ 400 million. “A tiny percentage of my net worth,” protests Donald Trump, still without giving a figure.
