How Donald Trump built his financial empire
After having been the ideal outsider from the primary to the Republican nomination, the billionaire is now the big favorite. A first step towards the last challenge launched by this businessman with colossal fortune.
Donald Trump does not own any electoral stronghold. This is why, to announce his candidacy for the Republican primary on June 16, 2015, he had chosen to bring together the press and his campaign team in the Trump Tower. Quite a symbol for this billionaire businessman, who discovered a passion for politics late in the day, at age 69.
Its objective is clear: to revive the “American dream”. "If I am elected, he will come back stronger and better than before," he promised, lamenting that the American dream is "dead". “Donald Trump cannot surf the self-made man side, but Americans today remain impressed by this business genius side,” explains political scientist Marie-Cécile Naves. He succeeded in creating gender confusion in the campaign by mixing the television showman and the political figure. " He is listened to, loved by a certain fringe of disappointed America, and above all sublimated by a limitless fortune.
Because this is the strength of this atypical candidate, who does not hesitate to make his favorite electoral argument. Forbes magazine estimated the curator's fortune at $ 4 billion, or about 3.6 billion euros. He declares a heritage that weighs "between eight and ten billion dollars". An amount that allows him to advance as the richest candidate in the United States.
515 functions, 168 sources of income, 23 real estate
According to his declaration of goods, assets and debts, sent to the federal electoral commission after the officialization of his candidacy, the milliadaire won in 2014 the sum of $ 362 million in 2014. And that's not counting capital income , rents and royalties. No wonder for this extreme cumulator: he enjoys no less than 168 different sources of income, the fruit of the 515 functions he performs, at least on paper.
Donald Trump is first and foremost a real estate mogul, owner of 23 properties, each estimated at around $ 50 million. He got his first foothold in the sector thanks to his father, manager of a real estate development company. He is imposing his paw on the family business by investing heavily in rental housing in the upscale New York neighborhood of Manhattan. Building on this success, he then built his first skyscraper, the Trump Tower, before returning several times from Las Vegas to Chicago.
"I employ thousands of people and I create wealth"
Wrestling lover, Donald Trump has also injected part of his fortune into the entertainment sector. Since 1996, he has owned the organization of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, which suffered last year from racist remarks by its owner. The billionaire is also the producer of The Apprentice, a reality show that has aired on NBC since 2004 in which he stars. An activity that earns him nearly $ 15 million per episode.
Still, the Trump empire has its hidden face, underpinned by the megalomania of the businessman who makes a very poor adviser. In thirty years, the billionaire has thus seen the birth of a bottle of vodka with his name, his perfume, his airline, a board game and even his brand of hamburger! They all fizzled out. In 2013, Donald Trump was even sentenced by the American justice to a fine of 40 million dollars (36 million euros) for having founded a university without state accreditation. “Even if he failed several times, he always knew how to bounce back and that is what is well regarded in the United States”, underlines Marie-Cécile Naves. And it is little to say it: after having been the outsider of the Republican primary, Donald Trump is now the big favorite.
