Since long before former President Donald Trump was even elected, the political left claimed that he would use the Oval Office and its benefits to make himself more prosperous and his businesses more affluent. However, according to new estimates on Trump’s current net worth, quite the opposite seems to have occurred.
According to Forbes, as of Monday, Trump’s estimated net worth is right around $2.5 billion. Now, this may still be quite substantial. But according to a Fox Business report from 2015, at the beginning of his presidential campaign, that’s a full $2 billion drop.
So why has he experienced such a drop in net worth?
Well, for the last four years, he refused to take a salary for doing America’s most stressful job. Instead, the money he would have rightfully earned was given in charity to causes that actually needed the funds, like fighting the opioid crisis.
Now initially, this made it difficult for progressives to prove their claims that Trump was only taking the job to make himself more money.
However, as we all know, they have found other methods since then.
Remember the ongoing tax audits?
Another, according to an op-ed piece in USA Today in 2019, is that Trump has offered to host several summits or conferences in recent years at his resorts, with the most notable being the G-7 summit.
Trump offered to host this at his Doral resort in Florida in 2019, prompting many on the left to assume he was trying to up business favors.
Noah Bookbinder wrote, “Hosting the summit at Doral would compel the federal government to spend money at the resort and could potentially require foreign governments to do the same.” Bookbinder continued, stating, “The results would be an enormous windfall for the president and his business, not to mention publicity and promotion of the property – an advertising campaign money could not buy.”
And Bookbinder wasn’t the only one with similar thoughts.
A year before this, in 2018, U.S. News & World Report published another op-ed taking like stabs at the then-president.
Robert Schlesinger wrote, “Without precedent in U.S. history we have a president who sees profit as the natural and immediate spoils of office.”
Oh’ really? Did he happen to take a look at the Obama’s finances before and after their tenure in the White House?
When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, no one hardly even knew who he was. He was essentially a no-name politician who just happened to check all the right boxes and was able to make awfully pretty speeches.
But by the time he and his family left the White House in 2016, the Obama name was worth 30 times as much as it was before, according to a 2018 report from Australia’s Financial Review.
And Forbes noted similarly.
“From the time he joined the US Senate in 2005 to the end of his presidency, Obama made $20 million alone from his presidency salary, book royalties, and investments. And based on all the projects he has taken on in the short time since leaving the White House, we can only expect him to make many millions more.”
I mean, one doesn’t exactly travel around the nation and world writing new memoirs and creating documentaries about yourself unless you’re looking for a little profit, right?
Trump, on the other hand, seems utterly uninterested in those same political stunts.
While the Obamas were busy cutting deals with Netflix and writing books, Trump left his side projects and businesses to others. He’s lost nearly half of his net worth…
In 2015, he told John Dickerson on CBS News, if he were elected, his business endeavors “wouldn’t matter to me.” He said, “I have a chance at making America great again; that’s the whole focus.”
And judging by the looks of his current net worth, as well as all the promises he kept, I’d say he was being nothing but honest. For him, it wasn’t just a political move to attain more votes or look loyal to the country.
He strove to really serve America first, not himself, and his finances prove it.
