The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s top 400 wealthiest individuals, was released Tuesday without a familiar name. Donald Trump, commonly understood to be one of the wealthiest people in America, dropped off the list.
But don’t feel too bad for Trump. The former president is still worth an estimated $2.6 billion – a dip from last year’s $3.2 billion, and enough of a loss to lose standing within the top 400. But come on. Trump is doing fine financially.
The news won’t sit well with Trump
Trump, vainglorious and self-obsessed, isn’t likely to take the news well.
“Tumbling from the Forbes 400 might seem like a minor problem for someone who is extremely wealth and running a second time for the highest office in the U.S.,” CBS wrote. “But Forbes notes that the Forbes 400 is an “annual measurement that Trump has obsessed over for decades, relentlessly lying to reporters to try to vault himself higher on the list.”
That Trump would obsess over his fiscal ranking won’t come as a surprise to those who have been following him in the news for the last several years. Trump is the same guy who got caught up worrying about his inauguration crowd size relative to his predecessor’s. Indeed, Trump was so fixated on his crowd size that he committed himself to a lie, and instructed his underlings to lie, about having a bigger crowd than Obama – when clearly, visibly, Obama had a larger inauguration size. Weird stuff. So it’s not hard to imagine Trump losing sleep over dropping off the Forbes 400.
Why did Trump’s wealth decline?
“Trump fell off this year’s list because of Forbes’ estimate that his net worth declined by $600 million compared with a year earlier,” CBS reported. “The culprit? Trump’s social media business, Truth Social.”
Trump had hoped that Truth Social would become a titan of social media, once predicting by the end of 2023, the platform would have over 40 million users. But as 2023 winds down, Truth Social only has 6.5 million users. (By comparison X has over 600 million users.)
Similarly distressing for Trump, Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, has struggled to go public after being bogged down in the regulatory process.
“If Trump’s platform were thriving, he would probably have no trouble finding alternative financing,” Forbes reported. “But it’s not, and there is little reason to be optimistic about Truth Social’s future.”
As a result, Forbes lowered the value of Trump Media & Technology Group from $100 million – a significant drop from last year, when the company was valued at $730 million.
Truth Social and TMTG are not the only Trump assets losing value; his office buildings have also declined an estimated $170 million.
“Most of that stems from a San Francisco property, 555 California Street, which is 30%-owned by Trump,” CBS reported. “Leases that generate about half the building’s rent are coming up for renewal, but the building is located in a “struggling” area of San Francisco. Neighboring buildings have sold for less than the building cost in 2005, which indicates that 555 California is worth less than it used to be.”
No one wants to see their wealth decline. It’s a worrying trend no matter how wealthy you are. But Trump still has $2.6 billion to his name. Can you imagine having that kind of wealth? He can still do roughly whatever he wants, live whatever lifestyle he wants, buy whatever he wants and he can run for the presidency.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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