How much is Donald Trump really worth?
Many of his assets and liabilities are simply too large for the federal disclosures form to measure.
By Shane Goldmacher
Donald Trump sold the Miss Universe Pageant last year for more than he has spent of his own riches to win the Republican nomination for president.
That and many other details can be found in his second annual financial disclosure, a 104-page document that he has bragged is “the largest in the history” of such forms.
The Manhattan real estate tycoon’s sprawling assets span the globe, including golf courses, restaurants, New York real estate — and some companies he has attacked on the trail.
Though Trump boasted Tuesday that his income was more than $557 million and that had he a net worth above $10 billion, the Federal Election Commission forms are not specific enough to assess Trump’s true net worth.
Many of his assets and liabilities are simply too large — reaching far above the top disclosure threshold on the filing — for their value to be captured in the report. Trump, for instance, reported at least $315 million in liabilities on the form, many of which are loans and mortgages on his properties. The forms cover Trump’s last 17 months of financial activity.
Overall, Trump listed board positions on 564 different entities in his filing and hundreds of financial holdings, including in blue-chip companies such as Google, Goldman Sachs and General Electric.
He had five liabilities that topped $50 million each, including a loan for the Old Post Office in Washington D.C., which Trump is renovating to turn into a hotel. He held a news conference there earlier this spring.
One of Trump’s bigger windfalls in the last 17 months came from selling the Miss Universe Pageant. His accusation during his announcement speech that illegal Mexican immigrants are “rapists” caused a dispute with its sponsors. The pageant sold for almost $49.3 million.
Trump also reported $29.8 million in resort revenues from the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, where he has hosted news conferences and some election night parties.
Trump maintained investments in several companies, or the parent companies of, firms he has bashed on the stump for outsourcing American jobs.
“Carrier and Ford and Nabisco need to know that there are consequences to leaving and firing people,” Trump said in a speech in Indiana in late April. “You can’t just go to another country and make products to sell across our weak borders because our borders will be so strong folks.”
Trump’s financial disclosure showed between $5,001 to $15,000 in income from bonds of Mondelez International, which is Nabisco’s parent company.
He earned a small amount of bond interest, $2,501 to $5,000 from United Technologies, which is the parent company of Carrier.
And Trump held between $500,001 and $1 million in Ford Motor Company assets, earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in interest.
The form discloses that Trump made between $1 million and $5 million last year for his book “Crippled America”. Royalties for many of his other books were less than $201, though he did earn between $100,000 and $1 million for “Time to Get Tough,” published in 2011, and between $50,000 and $100,000 for “The Art of the Deal,” which he cites regularly on the campaign trail and was published in 1987.
Trump’s assets include a $168,584 pension from the Screen Actors Guild, presumably from his days in television, including as the longtime host of The Apprentice.
Trump also reported $3.71 million in income from TAG AIR INC., which the financial form says was established to lease his 757 airplane. His campaign has made numerous payments to TAG AIR for use of Trump’s private plane.
Upon releasing his filing, Trump bragged that it was “the largest in the history of the FEC.”
“I have built an incredible company and have accumulated one of the greatest portfolios of real estate assets, many of which are considered to be among the finest and most iconic properties in the world,” he said.
Hillary Clinton and her allies have demanded that Trump release his tax returns for additional disclosure. So far he has refused, saying he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
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