Donald Trump’s wealth shrank by $1 billion over the past year, according to an annual tally by Forbes magazine.
The president’s net worth has tumbled to $3.5 billion as the value of office and retail space in Midtown Manhattan, where Trump owns about 10 buildings, took a hit, according to the magazine’s yearly rankings of the world’s billionaires.
That’s despite the fact that Trump had claimed during his election campaign that he was worth “in excess of $10 billion.”
The latest estimate — which knocks Trump’s ranking to 544th place among the world’s richest individuals, from 324th a year ago — is also down $200 million from October, when Forbes had pegged Trump’s fortune at $3.7 billion.
Trump’s dwindling net worth is going the other direction from many other billionaires during the past 12 months, who collectively saw their ranks swell to 2,043 worldwide with the addition of 233 newly minted billionaires, according to Forbes.
“Booming stock markets, higher commodities prices and plain old-fashioned entrepreneurship helped make this a record year in terms of wealth creation around the globe,” said Luisa Kroll and Kerry Dolan, assistant managing editors of wealth at Forbes Media.
Among the winners has been Amazon boss Jeff Bezos — who, as it happens, has had a particularly tense relationship with Trump. Bezos’ net worth surged by $27.6 billion to $72.8 billion, lofting him to third place among the world’s richest.
First and second places are occupied by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, according to Forbes, with fortunes of $86 billion and $75.6 billion, respectively.
Fast-fashion magnate Amancio Ortega, who owns the Zara chain, is No. 4 with a net worth of $71.3 billion, while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg rounds out the top five with a net worth of $56 billion.