Donald Trump tumbles out of richest Americans list

It is the second time in three years the former president has failed to make the Forbes 400 index

Former US president Donald Trump has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine. AP Photo

Former US president Donald Trump has tumbled out of the 2023 Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people for the second time in three years after failing to make the cut by $300 million.

With a net worth of $2.6 billion, Mr Trump’s fortune – which is primarily tied up in real estate and a 90 per cent stake in the parent company of social media platform Truth Social – has fallen by more than $600 million, or 19 per cent, over the past year, according to Forbes magazine.

“Trump’s 90 per cent stake in Truth Social’s parent company has plummeted in value from an estimated $730 million to less than $100 million,” Forbes said on Tuesday.

Watch: Can Donald Trump run for president if convicted of a crime?

The Forbes 400 list is an annual compilation of the richest Americans who own assets in the US and ranks them by their net worth. The list, which was first published in 1982, requires a minimum net worth of $2.9 billion.

Mr Trump has obsessed over the annual index for decades, “relentlessly lying to reporters to try to vault himself higher on the list”, Forbes said.

The former president is currently facing numerous legal threats, including a $250 million civil fraud trial in New York that started on Monday.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Mr Trump, his two oldest sons – Don Jr and Eric – and the Trump Organisation of lying to banks by inflating his net worth and the value of his property assets.

In a 35-page ruling last week that could threaten Mr Trump’s business empire, Judge Arthur Engoron found that he committed fraud after inflating the value of his properties by hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to receive favourable bank loans.

Mr Trump's defence relied on “bogus arguments” that lived in a “fantasy world, not the real world”, Judge Engoron said.

If the ruling is upheld on appeal, some of Mr Trump’s companies could be placed in receivership and he could be forced to hand over Trump Tower and other properties.

Prosecutors have accused Mr Trump of exaggerating his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion.

Ms James is seeking $250 million in penalties and also wants the Trump Organisation banned from conducting business in New York.

This is not the first time that Mr Trump has fallen out of the Forbes 400 list. In October 2021, he missed the cut by $400 million with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

He also fell off the list in 1990, when Forbes said it had exposed “deep problems with his debt-fuelled empire, ultimately putting his net worth within hailing distance of zero”.

“He conned his way into sharing a spot on the inaugural list in 1982 with his father, Fred Trump, by convincing a reporter that he held a larger percentage of Fred’s fortune than he actually did,” it added.

‘But Trump emerged from those troubles and regained a legitimate spot on the 400. He remained on the list from 1996 until 2021, when six years of polarisation and one year of Covid finally caught up to him, dropping him from the ranks once again.”

Meanwhile, Forbes has named Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) and chief executive of Tesla, as the richest person in the US with a net worth of $251 billion.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is ranked second with a personal fortune of $161 billion, followed by Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison with $158 billion.

“After losing a collective $500 billion last year, the nation’s 400 wealthiest people have gained it all back,” Forbes said.

“This elite set is now worth $4.5 trillion in aggregate, tying a record set in 2021 … more than half the gains came from rebounding technology stocks.”

Top 10 richest Americans in 2023

1. Elon Musk – $251 billion
2. Jeff Bezos – $161 billion
3. Larry Ellison – $158 billion
4. Warren Buffett – $121 billion
5. Larry Page – $114 billion
6. Bill Gates – $111 billion
7. Sergey Brin – $110 billion
8. Mark Zuckerberg – $106 billion
9. Steve Ballmer – $101 billion
10. Michael Bloomberg – $96.3 billion

Source: Forbes 400