Former President Trump fell nearly 300 spots on the Forbes billionaires list, and he only has himself to blame. Oh, we’re sure he’ll blame someone else, though. Trump’s wealth saw a decrease by more than $1 billion during his four years in office. Trump promised to insulate himself from his businesses while in office, but that’s not what happened. On the Forbes billionaires list released on Tuesday, the former president ranked 1,299 with an estimated worth of $2.4 billion. Trump ranked 1,001 on the list last year.
“The former president, who prides himself on his business acumen, refused to divest his assets upon taking office,” Forbes’ Dan Alexander reports. “Had he sold out in 2017 and reinvested in the market, he’d be an estimated $1.6 billion richer.”
“From the time he entered the White House in January 2017 to his departure a few months ago, Donald Trump’s fortune fell by nearly a third, from $3.5 billion to $2.4 billion,” the report states. “The S&P 500, meanwhile, increased 70%.”
Forbes called it a “monumental miscalculation” for Trump to refuse to divest.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“Every investor at some point has kicked himself for holding an asset too long. Perhaps none, however, has made such a monumental miscalculation,” Alexander writes. “By refusing to divest his portfolio upon taking office, Trump bogged down his presidency with ethics issues for years, while also missing a chance to cash in on a market boom he helped propel.”
“If he had sold everything on Day 1, paid the maximum capital-gains taxes on the sales, then put the proceeds into a conflict-free fund tracking the S&P 500, Trump would have ended his presidency an estimated $1.6 billion richer than he is today,” the report adds.
Donald Trump regularly played golf or visited one of his 17 owned or operated golf properties at taxpayers’ expense. Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, raked in $15,846 in US taxpayer money in December. And the fancy pants resort charged a whopping $396 a night for his security detail during an eight-day Christmas visit, Business Insider reports.
“The rooms cost almost double the limit of $205 a night under federal rules, which the White House can override,” the outlet reports. “Trump stayed at Mar-a-Lago for eight days last December as he golfed and aggressively fought to overturn the result of the election.”
Imagine if Trump had won a second term. Trump can only be described as a self-entitled grifter, which makes his name plummeting on Forbes’ list all that more delicious. Meanwhile, the economy with Biden at the helm is growing at breakneck speed while Trump plummets on Forbes’ list.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
