Donald Trump's net worth in 2024: How much money does the former president really have?
Former President Donald Trump has endured a string of costly legal setbacks that stand to drain his bank account.
On Monday, his attorneys said he's unlikely to secure a bond for the nearly half-billion he and other defendants need to pause a judge's February ruling in a New York civil fraud case.
That admission comes about a week after Trump posted a $91 million bond to appeal the judgment issued against him in the case brought by E. Jean Carroll, a writer he defamed after she accused him of sexual abuse. Trump had previously been ordered to pay $5 million in damages to Carroll after a federal jury last year found him liable for battery and defamation in a civil trial stemming from allegations he raped her in the 1990s.
The financial pressure on Trump comes as the former president's wealth has declined, according to Forbes' assessment of his net worth. Trump is no longer wealthy enough to be included in the Forbes 400, its annual ranking of America's richest individuals, although he remains a billionaire with assets valued at $2.6 billion as of February 2024, the magazine estimates.
In 2022, Forbes pegged his wealth at $3 billion, while in 2016 his worth was estimated at $4.6 billion.
How much is Trump worth?
As of mid-March 2024, Forbes estimates Trump's net worth at $2.6 billion, putting the real estate developer at No. 1,290 on the magazine's list of the world's richest people.
Although his wealth has dropped, the combined $88.3 million awards stemming from the Carroll rulings represents a small fraction of his overall wealth.
Even so, the $464 million judgement related to Trump's civil fraud case is straining his ability to find a financial institution that will consider a bond of that size, his attorneys said on Monday. "[A] bond requirement of this enormous magnitude, effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion ... is unprecedented," the attorneys wrote in a nearly 5,000-page filing on Monday.
"Very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude," they added.
To be sure, Trump's real estate holdings are far more valuable than the bond amount, but a Trump Organization executive wrote in the Monday filing that surety companies are unwilling to accept real estate as collateral.
Where does Trump's wealth come from?
Trump's wealth largely stems from real estate, spanning residential buildings in New York City to golf courses and hotels around the world.
According to Bloomberg, one of his largest assets is his $500 million stake in 1290 Avenue of the Americas, an office building in Manhattan. Trump also has $600 million in liquid assets, while his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort is worth about $300 million, Bloomberg said.
Why has Trump's net worth declined?
Some of Trump's real estate holdings have been hurt by the pandemic, with Trump's office buildings suffering from weak demand due to the growth in remote work. His office buildings declined in value by $170 million, according to Forbes.
On top of that, Trump's stake in Truth Social contributed to his fall from the Forbes 400 list. The social media platform was started as a conservative-leaning alternative to Facebook and other social forums, and the company once predicted it would top 40 million users.
But at the end of 2023, Forbes estimated that Truth Social has signed up just 6.5 million users — about 1% of the users on X (previously known as Twitter). Because of Truth Social's growth challenges, Forbes lowered the value of its parent company to $100 million, down from $730 million in 2022.
The venture could still prove highly lucrative for the former President now that securities regulators have cleared a long-planned merger between Truth Social's parent, Trump Media & Technology Group, and its funding partner. Trump is in line to receive nearly 79 million shares in the new business to be created by the merger. Based on its funding partner's current stock price, that stake could be worth as much as $4 billion.
