Donald Trump likes to present himself as a successful businessman to the outside world, but he counted himself poor in front of the tax authorities for years. As for his finances, he prefers to keep it a big secret. Contrary to all customs, Trump did not publish his tax documents as US President. It was only late last year, after years of legal wrangling, that Trump’s tax returns for the years 2015-2020 were released.
Now there is something new to learn about Trump’s finances. The ex-president himself gave 101 pages of insights into his business on Friday. It is about his income after the end of the presidency in January 2021 until the deadline December 15, 2022.
The publication is not entirely voluntary. It is a prerequisite for Trump’s renewed candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, which he announced on November 15. Because of his extensive possessions, Trump has repeatedly asked the responsible election commission for an extension of the deadline, until he was finally threatened with fines (which, curiously, would have been a fine of only 200 dollars).
At the last minute, Trump has now complied with his disclosure obligation. Trump does not give exact figures because only a rough range has to be given for the respective income. Nevertheless, US media draw some interesting conclusions from the documents.
The “New York Times” is surprised that Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is only given a value of 5 to 25 million dollars. Trump raised $1 billion from investors to launch his new social media mouthpiece. According to the NY Times, Trump still owns 90 percent of the company. A company spokeswoman quoted Trump Media as saying that it remains convinced that it will achieve “billions of dollars in value”. According to him, Trump earned practically nothing with Truth Social.
According to the financial documents, Trump earned personal income from various other things. Trump says he received “more than $5 million” for speeches, although it’s unclear how much more. Books are also an extra income for Trump, with his memoirs from 1987 (“The Art of the Deal”) remaining the bestseller with sales of $ 100,000 to $ 1 million.
Trump also received “more than 5 million dollars” for a real estate deal in Oman, where he is building a golf and hotel resort in cooperation with a company from Saudi Arabia. The project, worth more than 4 billion dollars, had sparked discussions because it led to economic ties between the Trump organization and those in power in the Middle East.
According to documents, former first lady Melania made between one and five million dollars with a company whose business purpose is unclear but which has the same address as Trump’s International Golf Club in Florida.
One of Trump’s most bizarre fundraising ideas of recent times also appears in the documents. In December, Trump launched digital trading cards, so-called NFTs, at $99 each, all of which show himself in various heroic poses. According to the financial report, the responsible company achieved revenues of between 100,000 and 1 million dollars as of December 15th. Since the deadline coincides with the start of trading for the Trump cards (which were immediately sold out), it is not entirely clear whether all proceeds are already included. Analysts recently estimated that the proceeds could amount to several million.
In the details, much of Trump’s financial management remains unclear. This applies not only to income and assets, but also to the debt of the financial juggler. According to the published documents, he has paid off six loans since the end of his presidency, but also taken out two new ones. In total, Trump lists more than 200 million in debt in the documents.
Finally, the New York Times notes that while Trump lists sources of income in detail, he is sometimes even less specific than in the past by only giving number ranges (which he is allowed to do). He had given the income from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2020 as $24.2 million – the current documents only say: “more than $5 million”.
Sources: AFP / New York Times / CNN / Business Insider
