Forbes List of 400 Richest Americans: Trump Fails to Meet Cut-Off

UTC by Godfrey Benjamin · 3 min read
Forbes List of 400 Richest Americans: Trump Fails to Meet Cut-Off
Photo: Forbes

President Donald Trump was also accompanied by a host of others in being dropped from the billionaires ranking.

Forbes Magazine has released the list of the 400 richest Americans for this year, and former US president, Donald Trump has failed to make the list for the first time in 25 years. Undoubtedly, the pangs of the pandemic had an untold effect on President Trump’s big-city properties as his networth dropped by $600 million since the start of the pandemic.

President Trump’s networth came in at $2.5 billion and is exactly $400 million short of this year’s cut-off of $2.9 billion. The protracted decline in the wealth of the former president dates back to his time in the presidency when his networth fell from $3.5 billion to $2.4 billion, dropping him 300 points while in office.

President Donald Trump was also accompanied by a host of others in being dropped from the billionaires ranking with the other prominent name being Oprah Winfrey. Besides these two, a total of 49 more billionaires were dropped from the list, with an additional 44 making their debut appearances on the list.

The Forbes 400 Richest Americans List: Dominance of Tech Moguls

Jeff Bezos, the founder of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) was ranked as the richest man in the US with an estimated networth of $201 billion. Besides ranking on this spot for the fourth consecutive year, this year is the first time any American will top the $200 billion benchmark in terms of individual valuation.

Elon Musk, the founder of the electric automaker, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), and SpaceX was ranked second with a networth of $190.5bn, while Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg was placed in the third position with a networth of $134.5bn.

Bill Gates secured his fourth place with a cumulative networth of $134 billion, up from $111 billion. However, this will be the first time Bill Gates will not be ranking in the top two spots in about 30 years. The list featured numerous new entrants including Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of the Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna.

The richest new entrants include Miriam Adelson with a networth of $30.4 billion. Miriam is the wife of Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul. 29-year old FTX Derivatives exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried came off the list as the second richest new entrant with a cumulative networth of $22.5 billion.

The Rich Getting Richer

What was prominent in this year’s list is the growth in the networth of the biggest names in tech bolstered by the pandemic which pushed many down the cliff. While the entire 400 members of the list increased their overall networth by $4.5 trillion, up from 40% in the past year despite the pandemic.

“Despite the uncertainty and the ever-changing market economy, the 2021 Forbes 400 shows that America’s wealthiest have grown far richer,” said Kerry Dolan, assistant managing editor, wealth at Forbes.

The top tech moguls have particularly benefited from the pandemic, even in the face of antitrust lawsuits from different government agencies.

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