Donald Trump falls off Forbes list of richest Americans

Former president loses place among America’s richest to crypto and tech bosses.

Former US president Donald Trump has slid down a Forbes ranking of billionaires as the magazine believes his White House stint is harming the Trump brand. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has fallen off the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans as he battles to save his corporate empire.

The former president, 77, has been a mainstay of the annual list, which celebrates the richest people in the US, for all but one of the past 27 years. However, Trump is not getting poorer. Ignoring inflation, his estimated fortune of $U2.6bn ($4.1bn) has been stable for the past year.

Having ranked in 339th place 12 months ago Trump is about $US600m short of getting on the business magazine’s list this year.

“If Trump is looking for someone to blame, he can start with himself,” the authors of the Forbes 400 said.

“Five years ago he had a golden opportunity to diversify his fortune. Fresh off the 2016 election, federal ethics officials were pushing Trump to divest his real estate assets. That would have allowed him to reinvest the proceeds into broad-based index funds and assume office free of conflicts of interest.”

Trump may have chosen not to diversify his assets, but as he seeks a fresh term in the White House next year, he may have some version of diversification forced upon him.

A judge in a Manhattan court this week began hearing a civil fraud trial, in which New York’s attorney-general is seeking to fine Trump $US250m and have him barred as a company director in New York for life. The judge has agreed that Trump and his company, the Trump Organisation, committed fraud, and landmark properties such as Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street are likely to be handed over to the receivers.

Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe, then presidents of the US and Japan, meet at Trump Tower in 2018. The building is likely to end in the hands of receivers. Picture: The Yomiuri Shimbun / AP

At the crux of the case is Trump’s habit of overstating the value of his properties to secure larger loans against them. This means that assessing Trump’s wealth accurately involves educated guesswork. Yet, had the frontrunner for next year’s Republican nomination sold off some of his assets in 2016 after he won the presidential election, he would be a lot richer today.

“By ploughing that $US2.4bn (that he could have expected after capital gains taxes) in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, for example, Trump’s fortune would have ballooned to dollars 4.5 billion, leaving him 80 per cent richer than he is today,” the Forbes writers suggest.

Never a poor man by any analysis, Trump’s wealth has varied over the past few decades. Forbes estimates that he first became a billionaire in about 1988, before his net worth fell in the 1990s. It rebounded by the mid-2010s before he launched his political career, reaching a high of about $US4.5bn in 2015.

Former US president Donald Trump speaks to members of the media during the third day of his civil fraud trial in New York on October. At the crux of the case is Mr Trump’s habit of overstating the value of his properties to secure larger loans against them. Picture: AFP

It may have been somewhat hubristic, but on taking office in 2017 Trump claimed he could run both the western world and his business empire at the same time.

He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and his wealth has receded after he eventually decided to entrust his businesses to his eldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric. Even if Trump’s fortunes – financial, rather than political – improve, he has a big task to climb to the summit of the Forbes 400 list.

The No 1 spot on the list is occupied this year by Elon Musk. The owner of Tesla and Twitter/X, the social media platform, has an estimated net worth of $US251bn.

The Times