Trump Didn't Make This List, and He's Not Happy

Former president slams 'Forbes' after not making it into the magazine's top 400 billionaires
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 10, 2023 6:16 AM CDT
Trump Falls Off Forbes List, Goes on the Attack
Former President Donald Trump addresses an audience during a campaign event on Monday in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

This year's Forbes 400 list of America's richest came out last week, and the magazine notes the "superrich are riding high again," making back $500 billion they collectively lost last year. Elon Musk tops the list with his $251 billion, followed by the usual suspects of Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett. Forbes also points out "one name you won't see": that of former President Trump, whose fortune is now worth just $2.6 billion (the cutoff to make the list was $2.9 billion). The Hill reports it's the second time in three years that Trump didn't make it, and this year's omission apparently struck a nerve with the ex-commander in chief, who slammed the "badly failing" magazine on his social media platform.

Trump asserted in a Monday Truth Social post that he missed making the "dated and discredited" list "just by a 'whisker,'" and that "for years Forbes has attacked me with really dumb writers assigned to hit me hard." Trump also went on to claim that the magazine was in cahoots with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who's embroiled in a lawsuit against Trump, and that the "China owned" publication was involved in the "election interference scam."

Insider notes that one big reason Trump fell off the list again is that Truth Social has been floundering in value, with Trump's 90% stake in the platform falling from $730 million to less than $100 million, per Forbes stats. "Glad he's taking it so well," Forbes snarked on Monday in response to Trump's diatribe. "Trump responds as he always has—by lying about his net worth and saying he should be higher on the list. We take extraordinary care in valuing his fortune, and our ownership—which does not include China's wealth fund—plays no role in that effort."

story continues below

The magazine went on to say that Trump had long fibbed about his riches to them so that he could rise higher in the list's ranks, and that his own former attorney Michael Cohen has said as much. "It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes," Cohen testified before Congress in 2019. (More Donald Trump stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X