First time in 25 years, Donald Trump not in Forbes list of 400 richest Americans

For the first time in 25 years, real estate mogul and former US President Donald Trump did not make it on Forbes list of the richest 400 Americans.

Trump is worth $2.5 billion, but fell $400 million short of the cut-off required to be part of the list. Last year, he was 339 in the rankings, but his personal net worth is down $600 million this year, mostly because of the COVID pandemic.

Forbes said that while many sectors thrived as a result of COVID, “big-city properties — which make up the bulk of Trump’s fortune — have languished”. It also said that Trump had a good opportunity to diversify his fortune around five years ago, but “decided to hang onto his assets”.

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“By plowing… $2.4 billion in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, for example, Trump’s fortune would have ballooned to $4.5 billion by now, leaving him 80 per cent richer than he is today. His refusal to divest, in other words, cost him $2 billion,” an article in Forbes said, adding that in an “alternate scenario, Trump would have been worth an estimated $7 billion by this September, when Forbes locked in estimates for its annual list, enough to earn a spot as the 133rd-richest person in the country”.

“If Trump is looking for someone to blame, he can start with himself,” the magazine noted.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos topped the list, with an estimated net worth of $201 billion, while Tesla’s Elon Musk was second with $190.5 billion – almost three times his net worth a year ago, thanks largely to the increased market value of his company. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg comes in third, and Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, is fourth on the list.

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