How Much Money Does Donald Trump Really Have? Less Than You Think

Former President Donald Trump may have been exaggerating how much cash he's had over recent years, filings released Tuesday showed.

Around the time Trump left the White House in January 2020, he filed a disclosure listing his cash pile between $50 million and $169 million. However, in recently released court filings by New York Attorney General Letitia James, it was revealed that the former president’s liquid assets stood at just $93 million in 2020.

The documents also showed that Trump has repeatedly exaggerated his cash over the past years. He has also allegedly supplied numbers to potential lenders, insurers and the magazine Forbes in hopes of seeking a higher spot on the publication’s inaugural list of the richest Americans.

In 1982, Trump’s lawyer Roy Cohn told Forbes reporter Jonathan Greenberg that he had more than $500 million in liquid assets. Trump was put on Forbes’ first-ever list in 1982 with $100 million in net worth. However, documents later showed that he was only worth $5 million at the time.

“This was a model Trump would use for the rest of his career, telling a lie so cosmic that people believed that some kernel of it had to be real,” Greenberg told The Washington Post, who recounted his phone conversation with Cohn.

“Trump wasn’t just poorer than he said he was. Over time, I have learned that he should not have been on the first three Forbes 400 lists at all.”

In June 2015, Trump launched his bid for the presidency. A financial statement released by his campaign team claimed he had cash of around $302 million as of June 2014. However, a financial disclosure filing showed he only had cash and marketable securities worth between $78 million and $232 million as of mid-2015, according to Forbes.

The court filings are part of the New York attorney general’s investigation into the Trump Organization and allegations that the company exaggerated the value of its assets to get better loan and insurance policy terms.

Earlier this month, the attorney general’s office has issued subpoenas to Trump and his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. The Trumps have refused to testify or answer the subpoenas. The former president has also slammed the investigation as a partisan witch hunt, citing James’ status as a Democrat who is running for reelection.