Those gains offset declines in other parts of his portfolio. In addition to his golf courses, the value of Trump’s leasehold at 6 E. 57th St. in Manhattan, which previously housed a Niketown store, fell 9% to $420 million as retail properties in the borough saw higher capitalization rates resulting from consumers’ increasing preference to shop online.
And Trump’s luxury residential building at 502 Park Ave., where his estranged longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, lived before he began serving a three-year prison term last month, is now worth $140 million, down 13% from a year earlier, after the building’s condo owners had to offer steep discounts to prospective buyers.
Trump Debt
Trump owes his lenders at least $550 million, according to his disclosures, property records and commercial mortgage data. The amount is roughly flat from a year earlier, after taking into account estimated loan payments and a new mortgage for a home in Florida that he purchased from his sister, retired federal appeals court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry.
The president owes Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG about $300 million for loans related to his Washington hotel, a Chicago tower and Florida golf resort Doral, financial disclosures and property records show. The new loan, for $11 million, is from Coral Gables, Florida-based Professional Bank. It carries a 4.5% interest rate and matures in 2048.
Trump’s $3 billion fortune doesn’t qualify him for Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people, which bottoms out at about $4 billion. The collective wealth of that group has jumped 12% to $5.39 trillion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The president’s own estimates of his net worth often are higher than independent appraisals. They’re also elastic. When Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, his campaign said he was worth $8.7 billion. A Bloomberg assessment that year that pegged his wealth at $2.9 billion prompted him to dismiss the appraisal as “stupid.” He then said he was worth more than $10 billion.
Much of Trump’s own valuation of his net worth stems from what he calls his brand value, which he has said is as high as $4 billion, according to unaudited financial statements he has prepared for prospective business partners.
Trump’s net worth could be higher than estimated if he owns assets or has received payments that aren’t publicly known, or if he sells properties at values above market averages. It could be lower if he has undisclosed debts or partners, or if some companies for which full financial information is unavailable are less profitable than estimated.
The president’s decision to maintain his business while in public office broke with decades of tradition and prompted lawsuits alleging he’s violating the U.S. Constitution by selling services to governments in violation of the emoluments clauses. It also has invited his critics to accuse him of profiting from the presidency, a charge he rejected in October when he told Fox News Channel that being president has cost him billions of dollars.
--With assistance from Jack Witzig, Dave Merrill and Tom Maloney.