Trump Is Angry About Being Booted From Forbes’ 400 Wealthiest Americans List – ‘I Should Be High Up’

On Monday, Donald Trump criticized Forbes after the financial publication recently removed him from its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, a list that includes figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett.

Trump claimed that the publication “lost most of its relevance long ago” and asserted that they “know less about me than Stormy Daniels (who doesn’t know me at all!) or Rosie O’Donnell.”

He made reference to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who claimed to have had an affair with him, and to Rosie O’Donnell, an actress and TV host with whom Trump had a long-standing feud.

The former president also repeatedly suggested that Forbes was “China-owned” and alluded to China’s sovereign wealth fund’s involvement in an abandoned deal related to the publication going public.

Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to express his views further, stating, “For years Forbes has attacked me with really dumb writers assigned to hit me hard, and I am now up 60 Points on the Republicans, and beating Crooked Joe by a lot. So much for Forbes!”

Forbes, on the other hand, explained that the former president did not make the prestigious list for the second time in three years because some of his investments had not lived up to their expectations. One of the primary factors was the decline in the value of Truth Social, the very social media platform where Trump criticized Forbes.

Forbes‘ Dan Alexander in explaining their decision, said that, “Trump once envisioned a significant percentage of the country logging onto the platform. But that never happened.”

He continued, “Roughly 6.5 million have signed up so far, about 1% of the total on X (né Twitter). Trump’s 90% stake in Truth Social’s parent company has plummeted in value from an estimated $730 million to less than $100 million.”

Forbes‘ decision to exclude Trump from its list has garnered attention not just for vanity reasons. New York Attorney General Letitia James has alleged that Trump inflated his net worth by billions.

A New York Supreme Court Justice issued an unexpected order, effectively seen as a “corporate death penalty,” after finding that Trump had engaged in fraud for years. Trump’s legal team promptly appealed the decision, which another judge temporarily put on hold.

Trump’s assertions regarding Forbes‘ connections to China are outdated and highly misleading. Despite his claims, China’s sovereign wealth fund does not possess ownership of Forbes.

In May, Forbes disclosed that Austin Russell, an automotive technology magnate, had acquired an 82% stake in the parent company of the magazine. Integrated Whale Media Investments, based in Hong Kong, now holds only a minority interest in the company.

Trump’s extensive diatribe did not mention Whale Media Investments, but he did reference the China Investment Corp, China’s sovereign wealth fund.

According to the South China Morning Post, this fund held a slightly over $11 million stake in a company with intentions to take Forbes public.

However, as reported later by The New York Times, the plan to make Forbes public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) was ultimately abandoned.

This is not to suggest that concerns about Forbes‘ ownership have never arisen. In 2017, a contributor to The Washington Post highlighted instances of possible “editorial meddling,” including the publication severing ties with a long-standing critic of the Communist Party.

A statement supporting Forbes‘ perspective on Trump’s net worth read, “Twice a year, we publish a detailed breakdown of our work, offering a far more accurate portrayal of Trump’s personal balance sheet than the fictitious documents the Trump Organization has created over the years.”