It’s an undeniable fact that Donald Trump is filthy, stinkin’ rich.

What is up for debate is just how stinkin’ rich, because over the past year or so Trump has talked up his wealth to varying degrees.

For example, when he filed his financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission this year, his campaign said he was worth in excess of $10 billion.

Slightly more trustworthy a source is business magazine Forbes, whose findings BBC have covered:

[They] reappraised the Republican White House hopeful’s personal wealth and found it has haemorrhaged $800m since 2015.

Forbes now estimates the real estate magnate’s net worth at $3.7bn (R51 billion).

The publication said the decrease was mainly due to the “softening” of the New York property market.

The magazine assessed 28 of Trump’s New York buildings, finding that 18 of them had declined in value. How much of that $800 million loss is down to his political campaign, then?

He has invested about $50m of his own money so far in his presidential bid, but has clawed some of that back by, for example, locating his offices in Trump Tower and billing his campaign for rent.

Forbes estimates his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants during his campaign launch cost him about another $100m in lost deals with NBC Universal, Univision and Macy’s, among others.

Of course nailing down someone’s exact worth isn’t an agreed upon science, which is why Forbes’ $3,7 billion figure isn’t fact. Given that Bloomberg says $3 billion and Fortune $3,9 billion, I think we can safely assume it’s far lower than the double digits he was punting months ago.

Then again Trump’s estimate includes valuing his personal brand at $3,3 billion alone, and critics also accuse him of ‘routinely overstating his income by conflating business revenue and income’.

The circus rolls on.

[source:bbc]