$1.8 billion loss in six years
December 30, 2022 was a special kind of year-end for Donald John Trump. On that day, the Finance Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives published the tax documents of the Republican former U.S. president - against his declared will and after a long legal tug-of-war between "The Donald" and the authorities.
It is in keeping with his sometimes quick-tempered nature that he did not admit defeat in the lost dispute. As, incidentally, did the democratically induced loss of his presidency. To this day, he considers himself the winner of the "stolen" election in November 2020, from which Democrat Joe Biden actually emerged as the victor and president.
But back to the tax records from 2015 to 2020: after they were made public, he complained fiercely about the process: "The seizure of these confidential documents was completely unconstitutional." And sounded off on his own Twitter alternative, "Truth Social": "The 'Trump' tax returns once again show how successful I've been and how I've been able to use impairments and various other tax write-offs as incentives to create thousands of jobs and great structures and businesses."
According to his own information, Trump had a fortune of ten billion US dollars at the time. But not everyone sees it that way. According to research by the U.S. business magazine "Forbes," the value of his property in September 2022 was only 3.2 billion U.S. dollars. Before his presidency, it is said to have been a good 5.0 billion U.S. dollars. That corresponds to a minus of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars!
One thing is clear: the published tax documents will not be very helpful in assessing his overall finances. They merely show what he officially earned - or rather did not earn - during the period in question. Because Donald J. Trump has made one thing above all else during this time: losses. And a lot of them.
Between 2015 and 2018, he reported a total loss of $246 million. In 2017, he paid a fairly manageable $750 in income tax to the U.S. government. That year, he declared losses totaling $12.9 million. And in 2020, he did not remit one weary cent to the federal government. In other words, Donald Trump made so much of a loss in the six years in question that he hardly had any taxable income.
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Trump's fortune: "The Donald" was richest US president in history
Despite his losses, Trump is not entirely penniless. In the USA, Trump's wealth is almost proverbial. In the past few years, the self-made billionaire has succeeded brilliantly in establishing his name as a brand and catapulting himself into the public eye with Trump Tower and Trump National Golf Club.
However, Donald Trump cannot look back on a typical career from dishwasher to millionaire. He benefited too early from the fortune of his father - New York real estate mogul Frederick C. Trump. While Trump Senior rose to become a multimillionaire by building apartments and barracks, his son Donald bought dilapidated real estate while still studying economics in order to resell it after it had been modernized. He received the start-up capital for these first entrepreneurial steps from his father. In 1968, Donald then joined the family business Elizabeth Trump & Son. Three years later he took over the management of the company - at that moment the "Trump-Turbo" ignited!
The Trump Organization - conglomerate and powerhouse
Today, the former real estate company has become - also due to Donald Trump's involvement - a globally operating conglomerate with numerous business areas. These include the management of luxury skyscrapers, a hotel group, various golf courses, a winery, a TV production company, a licensing company and a furniture brand. In total, more than 500 business units operate under the umbrella brand Trump Organization.
The company is headquartered in Trump Tower, a 58-story skyscraper in Manhattan. Despite its immense size, however, it is not among the ten largest conglomerates in the world. The top dog there is Danaher Corporation, with a current market value of around 173 billion US dollars.
How rich is Donald Trump really?
Trump's biggest fortune is in just four properties
According to research by the U.S. magazine Forbes, the largest part of Trump's fortune is still in just four buildings. The commercial and retail space of the Trump Tower alone is valued at more than 443 million euros, plus luxury skyscrapers in Manhattan and San Francisco. That's not all - Trump Real Estate manages and leases luxury properties around the world. These include 40 Wall Street (an art-deco skyscraper currently leased by American Express), the Trump World Tower (one of the most expensive residential buildings in the world) and several gigantic hotel buildings in Chicago, New York and Las Vegas.
To live in a Trump property, America's super-rich pay a lot of money. For example, rents for one of the 23 apartments in the posh Trump Park Avenue high-rise are around $100,000 per month. In a global comparison, however, Trump Real Estate is a rather small fish. In first place is the real estate group Wheelock and Company (Hong Kong) with a balance sheet total of 75.6 billion US dollars.
Trump as brand name: licensing deals for more fortune
Precisely because the real estate mogul can market his swank buildings at top prices, countless entrepreneurs buy a license to advertise their buildings with Trump's name. Hundreds of buildings around the world bear Trump's logo above the entrance, but they are not his property. Trump makes good money for the use of his name - with at least 50 different licensing or management deals, he made at least $59 million in revenue in 2015 and 2016 alone. In a global comparison of licensing companies, however, the Trump Organization is miles behind the licensing king - the Walt Disney Company (2021: 56.2 billion US dollars). Donald Trump himself estimated the value of his own brand in May 2022 at eight to nine billion U.S. dollars - depending on the general market development and partly even on his own feelings.
Profits with golf clubs? A questionable balance sheet
The Trump Organization also currently operates twelve golf clubs in the USA and five additional greens in Scotland, Ireland, Indonesia and Dubai. With these luxury facilities, "The Donald" also wants to increase his wealth. According to Forbes, Trump's sports facilities are worth $740 million. Whether the golf clubs are actually turning a profit is not known. He blew $31.8 million on the construction of his prestigious golf empire in Scotland, according to Federal Election Commission FEC documents. To get really rich on the green, perhaps Trump should have played golf sooner. Tiger Woods earned over a billion dollars from golf alone.
Trump Productions - Mogul with media presence
Donald Trump also has his fingers in the pie in the media industry - and very successfully at that. As host and producer of the TV series The Apprentice, he reached an audience of millions from 2004 to 2017 and was thus able - quite incidentally - to increase his popularity and brand value. The reality show, in which candidates vied for a managerial position in the Trump empire, made it to 15 seasons. Trump's fortune increased by a good $197 million from NBCUniversal's fees alone. However, due to preparations for his presidential candidacy, Trump left the TV format and was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nevertheless, Trump Productions continues to earn money from The Apprentice.
The art of the deal - Donald Trump as a book author
The former U.S. president's marketing strategy also includes a portfolio of nearly two dozen book titles published under his name. Most of them are business guides, but Trump has also put his political views on paper
The billionaire's books are selling like hot cakes: According to CBS research, 1.1 million copies of Trump's first book "The Art of the Deal" alone have been sold. The latest book, "Crippled America: How to make America great again," which describes Trump's campaign positions in detail, also sold extremely well. The author donated the proceeds to charitable organizations.
Furniture, entertainment, speeches - Trump's other sources of income
The Trump Organization also owns a luxury furniture company (Trump Home), a huge vineyard in Virginia (Trump Winery, estimated at between five and 25 million dollars) and the famous horse carousel in Central Park.
In the past, Trump experimented with other ways to make money, launching steaks, table water, board games, cosmetics, vodka, and his own merchandise collection. However, many of these attempts turned out to be a flop in retrospect - as did his involvement in the casino, football and airline industries.
How rich is Trump really?
The complex and opaque corporate structure of the Trump companies makes it impossible even for experts to put a reasonably accurate figure on Trump's wealth. However, he is far from being as rich as he himself claims. As mentioned, Trump's fortune has actually shrunk since he took over the U.S. presidency - to an estimated $3.2 billion by Forbes. By comparison, the fortune of French entrepreneur, LVMH CEO and principal owner Bernard Arnault was around $181 billion at the beginning of January 2023.
Although Trump has invested several million dollars in stocks (including Apple, IBM, Google and Ford) in addition to real estate, golf courses and company holdings, this is offset by a not inconsiderable debt burden. He is said to be in debt to several financiers to the tune of 400 million dollars. According to the media, he owes $290 million to Deutsche Bank alone.
