Donald Trump just got delisted
In 2021, for the first time in a quarter-century, Donald Trump’s name vanished from The Forbes 400 list. Forbes pinned the blame on Trump for not having taken advantage of a “golden opportunity” to diversify his portfolio, relying too much on real estate. However, the magazine noted Trump’s dramatic absence was because property values “languished” due to the pandemic.
The 2023 list came out Tuesday, and after regaining a spot last year, Trump has fallen off again—and he can’t use Covid as an excuse. According to an analysis on Tuesday, Forbes cites the failing Truth Social venture as the “biggest reason” for the drop in Trump’s net worth. “Trump once envisioned a significant percentage of the country logging onto the platform. But that never happened,” Forbes explained. As a result, Trump’s 90% stake in Truth Social’s parent company fell from an estimated $730 million to less than $100 million.
Forbes isn’t exactly optimistic about Truth Social’s rebound, pointing out that if Truth Social were doing well, Trump would have no problem with financing. Also, unlike two years ago, Trump is now “simultaneously facing a series of indictments and steamrolling the Republican presidential primary.” The reality, Forbes concluded, is that “if people are not logging on to Trump’s platform to hear what he has to say now… they probably never will.”
When Forbes first launched The Forbes 400 list in 1982, Trump “conned his way into sharing a spot” with his father, Fred Trump, only after lying about how much of his father’s fortune was his. Indeed, on Monday, the day before the new list was published, prosecutors in Trump’s civil fraud trial played a video of former fixer Michael Cohen in which he explained in a deposition how Trump was obsessed with The Forbes 400.
Cohen admitted that he, along with former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, routinely inflated assets to “obtain the number that Mr. Trump wanted,” and that Trump would suggest greater figures with the goal of being “higher on the Forbes list.” Not only is Trump’s name now off the list, but it is being removed from more buildings as the desperate narcissist becomes accustomed to defending himself in serious criminal and civil proceedings. Trump’s deception is quickly catching up with him on multiple fronts.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month