How much does Donald Trump weigh? This is a question that requires several very different answers depending on who you ask it to. Thus, according to the main interested party, his assets would amount to 10 billion dollars. In any case, this is what the candidate repeated during his campaign for the 2016 elections. An amount that would place the 47th president of the United States in position 270 among the largest fortunes in the world. Bloomberg.
But it appears that the businessman who inherited and developed a real estate empire has inflated the estimate of his assets to enhance his reputation as a “money maker.”
Already in their tax returns, the estimated value was lower since it was close to 6,000 million dollars compared to the previous decade. An amount that is in turn overestimated according to Letitia James, the New York prosecutor who led the trial against the “Trump Organization.”
“Mr. Trump’s net worth in any year between 2011 and 2021 would not exceed $2.6 billion, rather than the reported net worth of $6.1 billion, and likely considerably less if his holdings were actually valued in comprehensive professional appraisals,” declared his office in 2023. .
According to the lawyer, the inflated valuation of these assets would have allowed the businessman to defraud banks and insurance companies during the transactions.
Although it is complex to evaluate Donald Trump’s fortune, which does not depend exclusively, as in the case of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, on participation in a listed company, most of the American media estimate it at about 7 billion dollars .
Almost 6.5 billion dollars
This is the case of Bloomberg, which this Wednesday places the American president in 479th place in the world in its Billionaires Index with an estimated wealth of 6.49 billion dollars. The trust index, however, is quite low, the site acknowledges, since it is only 2 stars out of 5 when, for example, the fortunes of Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg are more reliable with 4 out of 5.
The difficulty comes from the fact that Donald Trump’s assets are largely in real estate through his ownership of the Trump Organization, an international real estate conglomerate and licensing business. The company thus controls 30% of two office towers in New York (estimated at 500 million dollars), a huge golf complex, the Trump National Doral in Florida, which would be worth 300 million, as well as a penthouse and a commercial space. on Trump. Tower, still in New York.
Added to this are some fifteen apartments on a very wealthy street in New York, 502 Park Avenue, a stake in a dozen golf courses in the United States and his residence since 1985 at Mar-a-Lago, a large property owned by Casi 7 hectares by the sea located in Palm Beach, Florida. A residence that has become a private club since the establishment of an environmental easement in 1995 that reduces the value of the land. While Donald Trump estimates its value at around $1 billion, the New York prosecutor, based on estimates from the Palm Beach County territorial services, valued it at $75 million given its modest turnover.
Finally, the businessman supposedly has $400 million in cash and various investments. But these sums are guarantees of a fairly important liability of 380 million dollars to which is added a second possibility of 270 million due to his conviction for fraud last February and which he appealed.
Valued 2,000 times its turnover
Most of the American president’s fortune is no longer in the real estate sector. It comes from his stake in his media company Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which he founded with Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss in February 2021 following his departure from the White House. The company’s activity is limited to the social network Truth Social, a Trumpist competitor of Twitter that had banned the former president.
Donald Trump owns 58% of the shares of his media group, which went public last March under the acronym DJT (businessman’s initials). The company’s valuation quickly reached all-time highs of $9.5 billion in late March. The enthusiasm subsequently died down a bit, but since the end of September the price of the media company has risen considerably again. It is now valued at $6.8 billion, bringing Donald Trump’s stake to nearly $4 billion.
However, the investor plebiscite for the company remains a financial aberration in relation to its real activity. On April 1, 2024, TMTG filed a report with the SEC, stating that the company lost $58.2 million in 2023 on full-year revenue of $4 million, or the equivalent of annual sales of a very small supermarket.
Through the first six months of 2024, the company only generated $1.6 million in revenue for a net loss of more than $340 million. Therefore, the company is valued… 2000 times its turnover.
Therefore, most of Donald Trump’s fortune is based on what many observers consider a “meme stock” or even a kind of crypto asset.
“As with bitcoin, people don’t buy Trump Media for future cash flow, but because: 1) they expect its price to rise and 2) they feel ownership over the asset, John Rekenthaler tries to analyze in Morningstar. Bitcoin owners are members The same goes for Trump Media investors; to a greater extent, DJT shares represent a currency with which they can express their beliefs and commitment.
In short, between clientelism and financial support for a political cause.
Source: BFM TV
