Yahoo Finance Donald Trump's fortune fell by $600 million during 2017
Donald Trump has seen $600 million wiped off his personal fortune during the past year.
According Forbes, the tycoon turned politician paid a heavy price for his successful run at the White House.
After financing much of his campaign through his own money, Trump was also hit by a tough New York property market and a costly lawsuit.
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That all added up to see his wealth drop from $3.7bn to $3.1bn for the year to June 2017.
Forbes said it had spent months “digging through financial disclosures and public property records and conducting dozens of interviews” to arrive at the figure.
It sees Trump, who became the 45th US president almost 12 months ago, drop from 156th richest American to 248th in the latest list published by Forbes.
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The biggest hit was to Trump’s real estate portfolio, which saw several of his Manhattan properties fall in value, wiping almost $400m off his fortune.
“Some of his golf properties, including ones in Miami, Ireland and Scotland, have also declined in value, as some would-be guests stayed away, apparently offended by the president’s politics and bombast,” said Forbes.
Trump is estimated to have spent $66m on his presidential campaign, first to secure his nomination and then to beat rival Hillary Clinton.
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A lawsuit over the Trump University – which was accused of defrauding students out of thousands to learn the secrets of his success – was settled for $25m shortly after he won the presidency.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was once again named America’s richest person with an estimated wealth of $89bn up $8bn on the previous year.
He was followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($81.5bn, up $14.5bn) and investor Warren Buffett ($78bn, up $12.5bn).
