Donald Trump's actual wealth analyzed

[PJMcK]

Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall has written an excellent analysis of Donald Trump's wealth using publicly known information:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/top-ten-reasons-to-doubt-trump-is-even-a-billionaire

Mr. Marshall outlines 10 items that give a clear impression that Mr. Trump is worth far less than he claims. My favorite is No. 6:

6. During the research for O'Brien's book he received estimates of Trump's wealth ranging from $250m to $788m. Trump himself originally told O'Brien he was worth between $4b and $5b before dramatically revising down his estimate to $1.7 billion the same day. If we take $250m, $788m and $1.7b together and rough average them out we can get around $1 billion circa 2004/05. Today Trump claims he is worth $10 billion. This would require a tenfold run up in Trump's wealth over roughly a decade. Even if we take Trump's own estimate of $1.7 billion it would require a five fold run up over a decade. The problem is that Trump hasn't done anything over that period that would account for that kind of wealth accumulation. Trump does very few major building projects these days and the few he does he does mainly with other people's money. After the bankruptcy crises of 25 years ago, Trump shifted his business model from high profile real estate development to licensing and television. He licenses his name for hotels, buildings and golf courses on the high end and steaks, water, ties and more on the low end. This probably generates a massive amount of income for us mortals. But not many billions of dollars over a decade. There's also been a major run-up in the value of Manhattan real estate over this period. But not nearly enough to get Trump from $1 billion to $10 billion. A year ago industry insiders were highly skeptical when Trump claimed that he had made $213 million for 13 years of The Apprentice. But even if we take Trump's word for it, that's still not remotely the sum of money to put in a dent in the run up of wealth he claims.

It's also amusing to read Mark Cuban's sly remarks about Mr. Trump's side businesses.