Donald Trump Drops Off Forbes 400 List of Wealthiest People in the US – On Wednesday, Forbes magazine revealed that Donald Trump has once again fallen off the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest individuals in the United States. This marks the second time in three years that he has been omitted from the list, coinciding with the ongoing business fraud trial of the former president in New York.
“Donald Trump is no longer rich enough for the country’s most exclusive club,” Forbes said. “With an estimated $2.6bn fortune, he is $300m shy of the cutoff for the Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people, the annual measurement that Trump has obsessed over for decades, relentlessly lying to reporters to try to vault himself higher on the list.”
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Forbes attributes the majority of Donald Trump’s $600 million decrease in net worth to challenges and a significant decline in the value of Truth Social, the social media platform he established following his removal from Twitter and Facebook due to their association with the events of January 6th at the Capitol.
The real estate portfolio that Donald Trump established his reputation upon prior to his entry into politics in 2015 has also experienced setbacks. “There is a bright spot in Trump’s portfolio,” the magazine added. “As fewer people spend time in the office, more are goofing off on the golf course.”
Business at Trump golf courses has rebounded, Forbes said, after falling during his time in the White House. Valuations of golf courses are, however, among matters under scrutiny in Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, where the judge has already ruled that the mogul “clearly [made] fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business.”
Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General, is pursuing a legal action seeking $250 million in addition to professional penalties against various defendants, which include Trump and his adult sons. Trump has experienced previous removals from the Forbes list. The first instance occurred in 1990 when his real estate empire faced difficulties.
He also dropped off the list in 2021, during the tumultuous period of his presidency and the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, only to make a return in 2022. “Make no mistake,” the magazine said then. “Trump is extremely rich.”
One year later, Trump finds himself in severe legal jeopardy. He is confronted with a civil defamation lawsuit stemming from a rape allegation that a judge has deemed “substantially true.” Furthermore, Trump is now facing a total of 91 criminal charges, including state and federal election subversion, the retention of classified information, and involvement in hush-money payments.
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Despite these legal challenges, he maintains substantial leads in Republican presidential polling and is currently the clear favorite to become the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race against Joe Biden. Some observers have taken delight in Trump’s recent drop from the Forbes list, finding a sense of schadenfreude in his financial setback.
Adam Klasfeld, senior legal correspondent for the Messenger, pointed out that in opening statements in the New York fraud case, counsel for the state attorney general ‘cited the Forbes billionaires list specifically as one of the motives for Trump inflating his net worth on financial statements.”