It’s complicated -- paper wealth is often deliberately unrealized until it can be realized with favorable taxes. My guess is that Trump is worth a fair bit, but, as someone else pointed out, if he’d just put his dad’s money in an index fund he would probably be worth more than he is now.
The thing about people like Trump is that they can make money -- he can start a business very fast because he can extend himself a loan from one of his other businesses. He can call the mayor of NYC and ask for a tax break; that kind of thing. He’s got access, which more than offsets his awful reputation.
It’s complicated -- paper wealth is often deliberately unrealized until it can be realized with favorable taxes. My guess is that Trump is worth a fair bit, but, as someone else pointed out, if he’d just put his dad’s money in an index fund he would probably be worth more than he is now.
The thing about people like Trump is that they can make money -- he can start a business very fast because he can extend himself a loan from one of his other businesses. He can call the mayor of NYC and ask for a tax break; that kind of thing. He’s got access, which more than offsets his awful reputation.