Donald Trump, the man has become almost synonymous with downfall this year. Unlike other presidents who made money, Trump’s presidency cost him a fortune and his wealth dropped by more than $1 billion from the time he took office. If he had sold everything and put it all into index funds, he would be worth an additional $1.6 billion. Instead, Trump kept the business, placing it in the hands of Don Jr., Eric Trump, and an executive at the Trump Organization. Today, he is worth an estimated $2.4 billion, enough to qualify for No. 1,299 on the Forbes billionaires list, down from No. 1,001 last year. Dan Alexander, a senior editor at Forbes who has tracked Trump’s business career, wrote that the ex-president “bogged down his presidency with ethics issues for years, while also missing a chance to cash in on a market boom he helped propel.”
“If he had sold everything on Day 1, paid the maximum capital-gains taxes on the sales, then put the proceeds into a conflict-free fund tracking the S&P 500,” Alexander wrote, “Trump would have ended his presidency an estimated $1.6 billion richer than he is today”. Having said that, it is also firmly believed that the coronavirus pandemic and fallout from the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack heavily impacted his business empire.
[Via: Forbes]
