Former President Donald Trump has seen his wealth soar by a half billion dollars thanks to some shrewd moves including moving to low-tax Florida, selling off assets, and paying down personal debts, according to a report.
Trump’s fortune has been valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $3.1 billion, up from $2.6 billion in 2021.
A sizeable chunk of Trump’s wealth can be attributed to the rising property values of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as well as his Doral golf resort in Miami, according to Bloomberg.
Trump also owns a dozen other golf venues in the US, Scotland, and Ireland which collectively generated 50% more revenue in the three-year period stretching from 2019 to 2022.
Last year, the former president also sold the high-end Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC for the whopping sum of $375 million — enabling him to pay off a $170 million loan from Deutsche Bank.
Trump is currently on trial in New York, where the state attorney general has alleged in a civil lawsuit that the former president fraudulently inflated the value of his assets in order to obtain loans from banks.
Bloomberg conducted an analysis of Trump properties which found that the former president did indeed inflate the value of his assets, though not to the extent that New York State alleges.
Mar-a-Lago, the 62,500-square-foot beachside property in Palm Beach that generates revenue since it doubles as a club that charges membership fees, is worth $240 million, according to Bloomberg, which cited comparable residential property sales as well as its value as a business.
New York has alleged in its lawsuit that the property is worth $27.6 million, while Trump claimed a $612 million valuation.
The state has also accused Trump of inflating the value of Trump Park Avenue, the residential condominium tower on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
New York has alleged the actual value of the property is $80 million, while Trump claims it’s around $91 million.
Bloomberg’s analysis placed the value of the property at $86.4 million.
Another Trump property — his penthouse at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue — is valued by Bloomberg at $40 million — less than a third of the $131.3 million valuation offered up by the former president.
Bloomberg said it used Trump’s 2021 statement of financial condition as well as filings with the Office of Government Ethics.
During testimony in court on Monday, Trump insisted that he undervalued his wealth. He also claimed that banks gave little weight to his statements when determining whether to lend him money.
“They just weren’t a very important element in banks’ decision-making process,” Trump testified.
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