If the political left is to be believed, former President Donald J. Trump is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the devil himself in disguise. According to them, his presidency was a scourge upon the earth and our nation. If allowed to continue his tenure in the White House, he would have effectively destroyed the United States, both morally and financially.
From before day one in office, they continually blasted from the mountain tops that he is racist, that he is sexist, and that, as a business guru of sorts, he was all about money and personal greed. They swore he would profit financially, and on a massive scale, from adding his name to the political roster and the land’s highest office.
But as it turns out, they were entirely wrong.
As a recent report by Forbes just proved, Trump not only didn’t take advantage of the wealth the presidency could afford, but he actually lost money.
And no, I’m not talking about just a few hundred thousand or what billionaires of his standing might consider chump change.
According to Forbes, Donald Trump has lost a whopping $1.1 billion since his presidency began.
Dan Alexander of Forbes wrote, “From the time he entered the White House in January 2017 to his departure a few months ago, Donald Trump’s fortune fell by nearly a third, from $3.5 billion to $2.4 billion. The S&P 500, meanwhile, increased 70%.”
And this massive loss has caused Trump’s standings on the list of billionaires worldwide to drop over 300 places.
So how did Trump lose so much money?
Well, according to Alexander, it’s all because Trump decided to keep his assets and not sell them off once he had won the election.
Alexander wrote that if Trump had chosen to “divest,” he “would have ended his presidency an estimated $1.6 billion richer than he is today.”
Of course, Alexander, as not much of a Trump fan, chose to make the entire article an effective bashing of Trump’s corporate shrewdness, claiming that “for a man who prides himself on his business acumen,” Trump should have ended his presidency and so his legacy in much better financial shape.
“If he had just listened to the ethics experts, his presidency would have been cleaner and his fortune would now be much bigger.”
But that wasn’t really the point of any of it, was it?
Trump didn’t take over the highest office in the land to grow his fortunes or increase his wealth and holdings. Instead, he did it to truly put America first.
And his actions show it.
From day one, he refused to take a dime of the salary his title earned him. That annual $400,000, instead, was given to various federal departments so they could do their job more efficiently.
In addition, he used that “business acumen” to increase the strength of the American economy, decreasing unemployment across the board and creating over half a century record lows for minority groups.
Trade deals were made that brought more jobs to American soil. Literal walls were built to keep Americans safe and secure our borders. And don’t even get me started on all that he did to get a vaccine going for COVID-19.
Let’s compare that to Barack Obama’s presidency and where his finances ended up.
According to a Business Insider article, the Obama’s began their stay in the White House some $40 million poorer than they are now. It was reported that between 2005 and his last year as our president, Obama made a whopping $20 million. This includes his presidential salary, various book deals, and several other financial investments.
In 2017, Forbes reported that about three-fourths of that, a total of around $15.6 million was made from the sales of book deals like that of “Dreams from My Father” (earning nearly $7 million), “The Audacity of Hope,” and “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters,” which together made Obama about $9 million.
No wonder his presidency, which lasted twice as long as Trump’s, amounted to so little. He effectively wasted his eight years in the Oval Office doing little more than writing memoirs and self-help books. Like Trump, he could have forgotten about his own personal gain and actually worked to “close the wage gap” or bring about peace in the Middle East.
But he didn’t. And that’s precisely why he’ll always be the better politician, not the better president.