It seems running for president is hurting Donald Trump’s finances big time. The Republican nominee’s fortune fell $800m in 2016, sending him tumbling 35 spots on a list of richest Americans, Forbes says.
The business magazine said the real estate mogul is worth $3.7bn — just over a third of the $10bn that Trump has bragged of amassing.
Trump, who has made his wealth a key selling point in his bid for the White House, plummeted to number 156 on Forbes’ list of richest 400 Americans.
It is more bad news for the Republican as his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton pulls ahead in the polls after last week’s first presidential debate.
“A softening of New York’s real estate market, particularly in retail and office, where valuations are trending down, has diminished his estimated net worth,” Forbes wrote.
Of 28 Trump assets scrutinised by the magazine, Forbes said 18 fell in value, including his Trump Tower headquarters on New York’s Fifth Avenue and Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump poured $7m into his campaign and loaned the campaign an additional $48m, which he was unlikely to get back, the magazine added.
He did just one real estate deal in 2016, buying a warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina, that was in foreclosure, it said.
In a further dig at the most loathed US presidential candidate in modern times, Forbes chose to highlight immigrant success stories and said a record 42 naturalised Americans made the 2016 annual list.
Immigrants accounted for 10.5% of the list, whereas naturalised citizens made up only 6% of the population, Forbes said. Those on the list come from 21 countries, led by Israel, India, Hungary and Taiwan.
Trump has made immigration a centrepiece of his campaign, promising to build a wall on the US border with Mexico and threatening to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
Fellow New York billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, who mulled whether to run for president in 2016, is number six on the list. Microsoft founder Bill Gates retains the top spot with a net worth of $81bn. He has headed the list for 23 straight years.
AFP