REAL ESTATE MOGUL Donald Trump isn’t shy when it comes to talking about money. He frequently boasts that his net worth is over 10 billion dollars, and that while running for the Republican presidential nomination, he used his own money.
The wealth of Trump surpasses all the current presidential candidates as well. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is the closest, with a net worth of around $60 million. Even though no other candidate comes close to Trump, there is nothing to laugh at about their wealth. According to reports from USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, many candidates clock in at more than a million dollars: Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, John Kasich, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Ted Cruz, and Chris Christie.
To put that in perspective, see how you compare Trump with the calculator below on common purchases. The rough value of everything you own, minus your debts, is your net worth. While there are many different estimates for the size of Trump’s fortune, we have decided to use the balance sheet total he gave in June: $8.7 billion. According to the Census Bureau, for comparison, the median net worth of Americans is a little under $70,000.
- Donald Trump became the first billionaire president of the United States in January 2017.
- The core of his fortune is tied up in a half-dozen buildings in and around midtown Manhattan in New York City.
- Trump also owns golf courses and a winery and has licensed his name to companies around the world.
- He got his start working for his father, Fred, who developed low-cost housing in Brooklyn and Queens.
- Trump tapped his two eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, to run the family business while he is in office.
Commercial Real Estate – $1.2 billion
Much of Trump’s wealth is tied to a handful of multiuse buildings in Manhattan, including 125,000 square feet of retail real estate in the usually busy Midtown district. With the coronavirus keeping would-be shoppers at home, the value of those properties has taken a big hit. Commercial properties that were worth roughly $1.9 billion before the pandemic are now valued at $1.2 billion.11 1
Residential Real Estate – $148 million
Trump’s vast real estate empire includes approximately 500 residential units throughout the United States. While it’s difficult to appraise those with precision, Forbes lowered its valuation of those units from $235 million to $148 million this spring, in part based on the lower stock price of publicly traded companies that operate in the same sector.1
Hospitality – $38 million
Times have been tough for hoteliers around the country, and The Trump Organization is no exception. The company’s hospitality holdings, including the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House, are now valued at $38 million. Before COVID-19 took hold, the projected value was $107 million.1
Hotel Licensing and Management – $42 million
When you’re as famous as Donald Trump, you don’t need to put money on the line in order to make money on real estate—you can also license your last name to other developers who want to plaster it on their own buildings. As of 2017, The Trump Organization had no fewer than 50 licensing or management agreements throughout the world, according to the Washington Post.
Golf Courses – $217 million
The Trump Organization owns a number of exclusive golf properties, from Colts Head, N.J., to Dubai.12 While players are still able to hit the links at most of those courses, the steep price of membership doesn’t make them recession-proof. Forbes puts their combined value at $217 million, down from $271 million prior to the coronavirus.1
Other Properties – $295 million
Some of the president’s exclusive clubs are holding up fairly well, despite an economy that’s hobbling along. “Mar-a-Lago is valued more like a billionaire’s trophy than an operating business, which seems to shield the impact of the current downturn,” writes Dan Alexander of Forbes.1
Cash – $160 million
Among rainy day funds, the president isn’t too shabby. Forbes approximates that Trump held $160 million in cash even before the health crisis. In a year where property values and stocks have been beaten up, it’s one asset class that hasn’t lost value.
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