Here's How Ex-president Donald Trump Became One of the 500 Richest People in the World

Here's presenting the world's richest person, former president Donald J. Trump. The 2024 presidential hopeful has been ranked among the 500 richest people in the world by Bloomberg after his media company Truth Social debuted on the stock market. The media platform became part of a publicly traded company and it skyrocketed Trump's net worth. 

The outlet reported the ex-US president joined the Billionaire's Index with a net worth of $6.5 billion. His worth was boosted by $4 billion after the parent Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. merged with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) on Monday, March 25, 2024, following months of negotiations and legal troubles. 

Apparently, Trump owns millions of dollars of shares in the media company and after the merger, he owns roughly 58 percent which equates to $3 billion to $4 billion. Although he's barred from selling the shares for the upcoming six months, the assets soared up his worth on the Bloomberg list. 

Following the boost, Trump now joins the TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and investment banker Tony James race at about $6.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg wealth index. However, the former real-estate mogul has always belonged to the rich, elite class even before this deal. 

Prior to this new boost, the 77-year-old's net worth previously peaked at about $3.1 billion. This figure mostly resulted from his sprawling real estate empire including Trump Tower in Manhattan, which is worth $56 million made up of $156m total value and $100m debt according to Forbes, a 370-acre estate in Westchester, and his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida which would sell for more than $1billion per BBC. 

However, Trump and his organization have been accused of inflating their wealth and assets by Attorney General Letitia James who filed a $250 million civil fraud trial against him. The lawsuit claimed the 77-year-old lied about his total net worth to seek bank loans and insurance favors. 

After months of back and forth with Judge Arthur Engoron and testimonies by his two sons and daughter, Trump lost the trial to James in February 2024. As part of the suit, he was ordered to post a bond of more than $500 million. But, a special appeals court slashed the figure to $175 million on Monday, March 25. 

Trump is also facing 91 felony charges across four criminal indictments and the Truth Social deal brought some relief to his mounting legal bills. The media platform's parent company will have a market value of approximately $5.5 billion when it starts trading and Trump's stake will be worth about $3 billion. 

Although the platform incurred losses of millions of dollars since its launch in 2021, Truth Social has around 5 million users and could be valued at more than $5 billion.