The Trump presidency was a disaster for the Trump Organization


The Trump Organization didn't exactly thrive during former President Donald Trump's time in office, Bloomberg reports. After compiling income and valuation numbers from Trump's own financial disclosures and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bloomberg found that most of his ventures took a hit in recent years, with the coronavirus pandemic, the fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and "an aging portfolio of properties" all playing a significant role.
Since 2016, the valuation of Trump's commercial real estate business is down 26 percent, and his most valuable holding — a 30 percent stake in two skyscrapers in San Francisco and New York that makes up about one-third of Trump's fortune — has fallen by $80 million since 2019. Trump's resorts and hotels portfolio, which includes the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., and Trump National Doral Miami, has also suffered, although Mar-a-Lago brought in slightly more money last year than a few years prior. Golf, Bloomberg notes, has weathered the pandemic better than some of Trump's other businesses because it's outdoors and a fairly socially distant activity, but some of his courses have still lost money.
Trump also loves to license his name, and his controversial nature appears to have caused problems for him in that regard. The PGA Championship will no longer be played at his New Jersey course, Florida's West Palm Beach voted to strip his name from Trump Plaza, and New York City is trying to pull his contracts to run ice rinks, a golf course, and a carousel.
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Finally, some of the struggles appear to be natural outcomes of holding public office. Trump could no longer be a reality television star or make movie cameos while president, so the income he used to receive from entertainment plunged, and he stopped publishing books, as well. Of course, those could be ways he'll build back some of his lost fortune, post-presidency. Read the full analysis at Bloomberg.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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