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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Trump Falls Off The Forbes 400 For First Time In 25 Years
Last edited Tue Oct 5, 2021, 10:06 AM - Edit history (1)
If Trump is looking for someone to blame, he can start with himself. Five years ago, he had a golden opportunity to diversify his fortune. Fresh off the 2016 election, federal ethics officials were pushing Trump to divest his real estate assets. That would have allowed him to reinvest the proceeds into broad-based index funds and assume office free of conflicts of interest.
I could actually run my business and run government at the same time.
-Donald Trump, January 11, 2017
Others in the executive branch have little choice but to listen to ethics officials. People who hold assets that might conflict with their day jobs in government run the risk of violating the criminal conflicts-of-interest law. The president, however, is exempt from that statute, as Trump proudly noted during a press conference nine days before entering the White House. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time, he told a crowd of reporters assembled in Trump Tower. I dont like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one that would be able to do that.
Trump decided to hang onto his assets. At the time, they were worth an estimated $3.5 billion, after subtracting debt. If he had instead chosen to sell off everything off, there is a chance that he would have had to pay significant capital-gains taxes. Trump acquired his five most-valuable holdings long ago, so he likely has huge untaxed gains locked in each of them. If he paid the maximum possible capital gains tax23.8% to the federal government, plus 8.8% to the New York State authorities on every penny he ownedthat would have shaved about $1.1 billion off his fortune, leaving him with $2.4 billion on the first day of his presidency. But what would have appeared to be a huge sacrifice at first could have turned into a lucrative realignment. By plowing that $2.4 billion in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, for example, Trumps fortune would have ballooned to $4.5 billion by now, leaving him 80% richer than he is today. His refusal to divest, in other words, cost him $2 billion.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/05/donald-trump-falls-off-the-forbes-400-for-first-time-in-25-years/
This is the kind of stuff that hits him where it hurts!
Siwsan
(26,257 posts)That seems to be his MO when something/someone spoils his day.
jimfields33
(15,763 posts)Siwsan
(26,257 posts)I can't wait to see his photo captioned: "How far the 'mighty' have fallen."
OLDMDDEM
(1,572 posts)Since no one really knows his true net worth, at least, no one has come out and looked and appraised each of his properties until now, he may be a bigger loser than Forbes shows. I hope his properties are all attached by the state and city of New York for back taxes and penalties.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)Johnny2X2X
(19,024 posts)People like him hide assets. And he's certainly made deals during his presidency that are paying off now.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Tomconroy
(7,611 posts)Up Forbes and demand to be put on the list. Many of the truly wealthy have no interest in being on it.
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,086 posts)demmiblue
(36,838 posts)For more than 30 years, Donald Trump lobbied Forbes for a higher ranking on our annual list of Americas richest people. But the president wasnt the only person involved in the behind-the-scenes jostling. So, too, was former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to deliver devastating testimony about his former boss on Wednesday.
Among the many subjects: How Donald Trump has manipulated estimates of his net worth over the years. It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes, Cohen plans to say, according to an early copy of his written testimony released by Politico.
Its a topic Cohen should know well, having had a front-row seat for part of Trumps long-running crusade to appear richer than he is. In 2012, Cohen, Trump, longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg and one other company executive met with a Forbes reporter to haggle over the estimates, according to notes taken at the time. In 2015, just a couple of months after Trump launched his campaign, Cohen was one of several Trump subordinates who spoke with Forbes about the numbers.
Of course, the Forbes-Trump saga goes back farther than that. Inquire about Donald Trump in New York real estate circles, begins the magazines first full profile on the developer, published in February 1983, and youre sorry you asked: Youll get an earful about how Trump, at 36 certainly New Yorks most visible property tycoon, is a creation of his own hype.
Trump and his father, Fred, a major builder in Brooklyn and Queens, appeared on the original Forbes 400 in 1982, with a combined fortune of $200 million. The future president protested that was not nearly enough: Donald claims $500 million.
Before long, Trump began pushing to be listed on his ownwithout his father, who remained active in the family business. In 1984, he called former Forbes reporter Jonathan Greenberg, pretending to be a Trump Organization employee named John Barron. Let me just tell you what the deal is, just so you understand, Trump began, sounding perfectly comfortable faking his identity. Most of the assets have been consolidated to [Donald] Trump, you know, because you have down Fred Trump.
So Forbes removed Fred Trump from the rankings and began counting his son on his own. Donald Trump stayed on the list until 1990, when an avalanche of debt came crashing down on him. Confident that his net worth was down to $500 million, at best, Forbes dropped him from the rankings. True to form, Trump insisted he was worth four or five billion dollars and publicly berated Forbes for undervaluing his fortune in an essay for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, titled Forbes Carried Out Personal Vendetta In Print. He quietly offered a more honest self-assessment in a nonpublic document filed with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, admitting his fortune totaled about $3.6 billion in assets and $3.4 billion in debt meaning his net worth was just $200 million.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/02/27/trump-with-michael-cohen-by-his-side-has-history-of-lying-about-his-fortune/
Under The Radar
(3,401 posts)malaise
(268,885 posts)that is all
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,489 posts)For humanity, tRump and thousands like him have negative worth and they're an albatross around our necks.
Let's remind ourselves regularly that the market's idea of worth is ultimately derived off the backs of hundreds of millions of everyday working folks.
We live in a trickle-up world, otherwise known as feudalism...... .......
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,086 posts)Demovictory9
(32,445 posts)BSdetect
(8,998 posts)Wolf Frankula
(3,600 posts)He can't get an American bank to lend him money. My short guess is, when you count the financial obligations, he has a negative net worth.
Wolf
Mr.Bill
(24,274 posts)I am sure my net worth is more than Donald Trump's.