Here's How Much Donald Trump Is Really Worth
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It's no secret that Donald Trump touts himself as a wealthy man; he claimed he was worth $9 billion during his 2016 presidential campaign, per The Guardian. While the 45th U.S. president may not be worth quite that much, he is the first billionaire president, according to Forbes. So what's his net worth exactly?
Donald Trump got his start working for his father, Fred, who developed low-cost housing in Brooklyn and Queens, according to Washington Post. The New York Times reported that Trump was given a lot of money from his pops over the years — equaling at least $413 million in today's dollars — which he used to create his own luxury real estate, hotel, and golf course brand of today. And the polarizing reality TV host turned Twitter-loving politician has bought some luxurious items to signal his wealth. In 1989, Boat International ran a story on his 86-meter yacht, originally called Nabila, which he purchased from a Saudi businessman for a breezy $30 million. He also owns his own Boeing aircraft, which he dubbed "Trump Force One." And those planes are not cheap.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Trump graciously doesn't accept his $400,000 yearly presidential salary, instead donating it all to charity. So he must be pretty loaded right? Let's take a look at Donald Trump's true net worth.
Donald Trump reportedly inflates his net worth
Donald Trump is a billionaire, but not by much. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the president is worth $3.1 billion. Much of that is from successful real estate holdings and ventures like Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, his various golf courses, wineries, and more.
But according to Forbes, Trump's net worth may have dropped a staggering $1 billion to $2.1 billion during the coronavirus pandemic as the hospitality and commercial real estate industries suffered. According to the outlet, real estate companies similar to Trump's, including Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust, plunged an average of 37 percent from March 1, 2020, to March 18, 2020. So it's safe to say Trump has taken a serious hit. But even prior to COVID-19, Trump was pretty far behind compared to billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, who's worth over $50 billion, per Forbes.
And you never really know with the divisive president. According to CNN, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump "inflated his total assets when it served his purposes." One Forbes employee who ran the "Forbes 400" for years, which Trump is reportedly obsessed with, said the publication learned to take whatever figure Trump offered as his net worth and "immediately divide it by three and refine it from there."
Money is supposedly 'everything' to the Trump family
President Donald Trump might have allegedly inflated his net worth due to childhood experiences, a sentiment his niece, Mary Trump, outlined in a July 2020 interview with ABC News. "I'm a Trump. Everything's about money in this family, but I'm also different from them, and for me, what I understood and one of the reasons it was so devastating, was that money stood in for everything else," Mary, who wrote Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, explained. "It was literally the only currency the family trafficked in."
The clinical psychologist also accused her late grandfather, Fred Trump, of teaching Donald that people are "expendable." Mary alleged, "For my grandfather in particular, there was no such thing as having enough money. And so I was thinking about what that meant, and also thinking about the psychology behind him and his children, I was very curious about the foundational issues that Donald and his siblings lived through."
If these claims are true, it possibly explains why Donald appears obsessed with money and his net worth.
Donald Trump is leaving the White House much poorer than when he entered
Unfortunately for Donald Trump, being president was one of the least financially savvy things he has done in years. Earlier assumptions that Trump's net worth crashed due to the coronavirus pandemic might have proven true. In November 2020, the new Forbes 400 list, which tallies up the 400 richest people in America, revealed that Trump's net worth has dropped "bigly" to the tune of $2.5 billion — not far off from the $2.1 billion that was estimated.
While that's still a boatload of money, it's a massive drop of $600 million in one year, or 20 percent, per Forbes. That's because, as the outlet noted, coronavirus "battered not only the president's poll numbers but also the very industries in which he holds his biggest assets," like real estate, and more. Ouch. This makes Trump No. 339 on the 400 list, a drop of 64 spots from just one year ago.
What makes this even more worrisome? As CNN pointed out, it takes a net worth of $2.1 billion to even make Forbes 400 list at all. So if things continue to go south for Trump, he may be off the list come 2021. We can surely brace ourselves for a Twitter tsunami in that case.