The New York attorney general hit Donald Trump with a $250 million lawsuit last week, accusing the real estate mogul of engaging in financial fraud by lying about the value of his assets. But make no mistake, Trump is extremely rich. In fact, the former president climbs back onto The Forbes 400 this year after dropping off 12 months ago, with his estimated net worth jumping from $2.5 billion to $3.2 billion, enough to qualify for No. 343 on the ranking of America’s richest people.
The roots of his resurgence go back to January 6, 2021, when the riot on the U.S. Capitol prompted a backlash against the president. Several companies tried to distance themselves from Trump, and Twitter permanently banned him from its platform. Nine months later, out of office and sitting atop a stagnant business empire, Trump announced the creation of a new company, the Trump Media and Technology Group, and its intended competitor to Twitter, Truth Social.
The Trump Media and Technology Group is now the former president’s single most valuable asset. An analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings suggests that Trump owns more than 80% of the venture, which has run into a host of issues trying to go public via a special purpose acquisition company. Despite federal investigations and rumors of payment problems, retail investors were buying shares of the SPAC for $25 on September 2, when Forbes locked in the value of publicly traded holdings for this year’s list. At that price, Trump’s 73 million shares would be worth $1.8 billion. But Forbes values Trump’s interest at a more conservative $10 per share, reflecting the discounted rate that a handful of big-money investors agreed to pay for a piece of the action. At that price, Trump’s stake is worth about $730 million.
That alone would be enough to vault Trump back on to The Forbes 400, but he has had other recent successes as well. In May, the former president sold his hotel in Washington, D.C. for a reported $375 million, far more than independent experts believed it was worth. That transaction allowed Trump to pay back a $170 million loan from Deutsche Bank and still take home an estimated $135 million. Through a series of other deals, Trump refinanced or paid off another half dozen loans, leaving his balance sheet in a stronger position today than it has been in years, with roughly $375 million of cash, up an estimated $79 million from a year ago.
Not everything is going well. Trump’s New York City real estate portfolio, long the core of his fortune, continues to suffer from the effects of Covid-19. The Trump Organization reportedly reupped its Trump Tower lease with Gucci, its most important tenant, during the pandemic. Although the details of that transaction remain unclear, it seems likely that Gucci got a steep discount, given that profits at the building recently plunged. Today, the former president’s interest in Trump Tower is worth an estimated $207 million, $78 million less than a year ago.
There’s more trouble at 40 Wall Street, an office building in downtown Manhattan. Tenants drifted away during the pandemic, and lending records show occupancy falling to 84%, which appears to be the property’s lowest rate in ten years. Net operating income dropped to $12.7 million in 2021, down 30% from 2019. Forbes estimates that 40 Wall Street is currently worth $211 million. Donald Trump did not weigh in on our estimates, but he probably would have disagreed with them if he had. For years, Trump and his underlings lied to Forbes about 40 Wall Street and other properties.
Those sorts of misrepresentations are now a part of the case from the New York attorney general, who Trump has accused of continuing a “witch hunt” against him. According to authorities, last year Donald Trump’s balance sheet listed the value of 40 Wall Street at $664 million, relying on a bogus price-per-square-foot metric to justify the lofty number. It’s just one example of a broader trend in Trump’s portfolio. His assets are not worth anywhere near what he claims, but they are still extremely valuable.