Throwback: when Trump was ousted from the list of top billionaires

Although Donald Trump secured a spot on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, a severe decline in Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock prices soon caused his net worth to plummet and led to his removal from the list of top billionaires.

The Bloomberg Billionaire Index tracks the daily ranking of the wealthiest 500 people in the world and on April 9th the former president dropped off the prestigious list following a major decline in Trump Media & Technology Group, sometimes called just Trump Media, stock prices. 

"Trump's net worth briefly more than doubled after Trump Media completed its merger with (Digital World Acquisition Corp) last month, placing him on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index—a ranking of the 500 richest people in the world—for the first time ever, with an estimated net worth of about $6.5 billion," Newsweek reported.

Trump Media is the parent company of Truth Social and The Independent reported Trump was listed among the world's richest people when Trump Media's stock price ended its first day of trading at $55.99.

However, things quickly began to deteriorate and Trump Media's stock price fell to $36 dollars a share, which The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander noted was the likely reason Trump was booted off the Billionaire Index. 

“Trump Media... began trading at $78 and finished its first day at $57.99, allowing Mr Trump to join the list of the world’s 500 richest people,” Kilander explained about Trump’s situation.

“But by Wednesday morning, the stock was trading at just above $36 – a likely cause of Mr Trump’s removal from the list of the top billionaires,” Kilander added. But Trump wasn't hurting too badly according to other estimates. 

As of April 14th, Forbes had listed the real-time net worth of Donald Trump to be $4.4 billion, which was about $1.3 billion less than David Green—the man who was the then lowest-ranked individual on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index with an estimated net worth of $5.7 billion, which put him in the 500th spot. 

Whether or not Trump would be able to regain a spot on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index was difficult to say at the time, Trump owned the majority share of Trump Media, and a large part of his wealth was tied to the company’s success. 

The former president owned 78.75 million shares of Trump Media stock when he was removed from Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, which at the time represented 57.6% of the company according to a filing from the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Variety noted that Trump’s stake in Trump Media in April 2024 was worth about $2.5 billion following a closing stock price of $32.59 a share on April 12th. But that number was down from $5.2 billion from the company’s top closing stock price. 

“Trump and other company executives are subject to a lock-up period preventing them from selling the stock for at least six months,” explained Variety’s Todd Spangler, which could be a major problem for the former president. 

Trump Media's falling stock price in April followed the release of an April 1st Form 8-K filing that revealed Truth Social only earned $4.13 million in net sales in 2023, had an operating loss of $15.97 million, and a net loss of $58.19 million. 

Wall Street initially valued TMTG at roughly $14 billion according to The Independent but some experts explained that the valuation the company originally saw was not right.

On March 26th, finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Jay Ritter called the launch of Trump Media on the stock exchange a “very unusual situation” and one that was analogous to the 2021 GameStop situation. 

“The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” Ritter explained before he went on to claim that Trump Media’s stock price could drop very low. 

“I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger,” Ritter added, which is a problem that certainly wouldn’t have helped Trump’s finances. 

As of April 23rd, the former president became $1.2 billion dollars richer according to CBS News, which reported that he was set to receive an additional 36 million shares of Trump Media as a bonus, which at the $32.56 per share the stock was trading at on that day added a huge amount of wealth to Trump's net worth.

As of May 12th, Trump was back on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index and sitting in the 313th spot with an estimated net worth of $8.45 billion. Trump Media stock was also up from its previous lows at $50,99 a share.

Sitting at the bottom of the index in the 500th position was James Cox Chambers, an American businessman with a net worth of $5.45 billion as of May 12th. David Green had fallen off the list.

Photo Credit: Screenshot YouTube @PeaceOneDay