Former President Donald Trump Falls Off Forbes 400 List for First Time in 25 Years

For a quarter-century, Donald Trump has been a mainstay on the Forbes 400 list. After touting his business skills on the campaign trail that won him the US presidency, Trump has steadily seen his fortune decline.

In 2020, Trump came in as the 339th richest American, his lowest showing since 1996. That was when he first rejoined the list following the bankruptcy of the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Plaza Hotel, and the Trump Castle Hotel and Plaza in the early 1990s. While Trump fell off the list in 2021, his personal net worth has remained static at $2.5 billion.

Trump’s demise, in the Forbes 400, is a product of the economic environment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Much of the former president’s wealth is tied up in big-city properties and, over the past year, tech stocks have shown dramatic growth, while Manhattan commercial real estate has taken a hit that looks unlikely to abate.

Trump falling off the list isn’t a total surprise, as his net worth and ranking had been sliding down ever since he seriously began running for president. In 2015, Trump posted his highest net worth of $4.5 billion and came in as the 121st wealthiest American.

However, every year since, he has gone down in the rankings as his personal net worth has shrunk by $2 billion.

Following Trump’s election, he boasted “I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to.”

While ethics experts were upset over Trump’s failure to divest his assets to protect against conflicts of interests and corruption, the concerns appear to have been unwarranted as it cost him $2 billion to be president.