Donald Trump rejoins Forbes 400 list of richest Americans

The ex-president’s net worth surged by more than a half billion over one year

Donald Trump is once again a member of the Forbes richest Americans club, rejoining the magazine’s list of the top 400 richest US citizens after falling off in 2021.

The magazine made the announcement on Monday, noting that Mr Trump’s wealth had risen from $2.5 bn to $3.2 bn over 2021-2022.

Editors of Forbes did, however, note the massive fraud lawsuit facing the former president, which threatens the value his hoard if it ends in a judgement against him.

“The New York attorney general hit Donald Trump with a $250 million lawsuit last week, accusing the real estate mogul of engaging in financial fraud by lying about the value of his assets. But make no mistake, Trump is extremely rich,” wrote the editors.

Mr Trump has long bragged about his success in business even in recent years as allegations have mounted that he inflated or delated the worth of his assets for the purposes of paying taxes and obtaining loans. He has long denied those accusations, which grew in strength in 2019 thanks to testimony of his former attorney, Michael Cohen, in front of the House Oversight Committee.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced that her office would be filing a civil suit against the Trump Organization, Mr Trump himself, as well as three of his adult children. The massive suit seeks to oust the Trumps as leaders of their own company and personally bar the family itself from doing future business in New York state. It also seeks about $250m in allegedly illegal profits.

“Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us,” Ms James asserted at her press conference announcing the suit.

An attorney for Mr Trump has called the lawsuit “solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda.”

“We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims,” said Alina Habba.

The president’s net worth has long been a source of personal pride for the 76-year-old hotel mogul who frequently boasted throughout his 2016 run for president that he was self-funding his campaign. At the time, his campaign and related PACs fundraised heavily from private donors, and continue to do so.