Voters will be aware of Donald Trump’s reported wealth as they head to the polls in November.
But the reality of the tycoon-turned-politician’s earnings has been called into question after a civil court ruled he had exaggerated his wealth for years.
The financial statuses of Mr Trump’s running mate JD Vance and their Democratic rivals Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have also been the subject of scrutiny in the lead-up to the 5 November election.
But just how much are the candidates worth, how have they accumulated their wealth and how much will they get paid if they win the election?
Donald Trump
Image: Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, made his name in real estate before becoming a politician.
He is asset rich, with 18 golf and social clubs, his 20-acre Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, hotels, office buildings, residential buildings and other estates.
But the value of all of the 78-year-old’s assets and his net worth have long been disputed, with New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the civil case against him, estimating Mr Trump has exaggerated his wealth by as much as $3.6bn (£2.7bn) at times.
While the figures have been scrutinised, no one is denying that Mr Trump is indeed wealthy.
Estimates over his actual net worth have fluctuated significantly this year due to changes to Mr Trump’s biggest asset: the parent company of his Truth Social platform.
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The company, called Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), went public in March and its valuation jumped up beyond $10bn (£7.5bn) within hours of its Wall Street debut.
However its shares have steadily lost ground, accelerating after President Joe Biden ended his failing re-election bid on 21 July and slumping even further after Mr Trump’s debate with Ms Harris in September.
Mr Trump owns 57% of the company and his shares are now worth roughly $1.6bn (£1.2bn), according to Reuters.
The amount of cash he has is also a contentious topic. He claimed in March he had almost $500m (£373m) in cash, despite his lawyers arguing he couldn’t cover the $454m (£340m) he was ordered to pay in the civil fraud case.
Trump’s income
The former star of The Apprentice is raking in millions through his golf courses and real estate properties, according to financial disclosure papers he released in August as part of his presidential bid.
The over 200-page document, which covers the year before its filing, only gives a limited picture of Mr Trump’s money and investments, as it doesn’t detail his business losses, and most assets are listed within ranges because federal disclosure reports don’t require specific sums.
But it does show his broad business empire, with big sources of income including his flagship Mar-a-Lago resort, which generated more than $56m (£42m); $37m (£28m) from his golf club in New Jersey; $31m (£23m) from his club in Jupiter, Florida; and £26m ($35m) from his Turnberry course in Scotland.
Image: Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Pic: Reuters
The pages show he has a wide range of companies and investments in traditional stocks across the globe.
Many appear to simply be trademark claims in countries as varied as Argentina, Belarus, Cuba and India, while he also reported earning $7.15m (£5.4m) in licensing fees from NFT INT, which appears to be a firm selling digital tokens.
There are some unusual sources of passive income too, including the annual pension of $90,776 (about £68,000) he collects as a one-time member of the Screen Actors Guild.
He has earned millions from speaking engagements and book sales – including $4.4m (£3.3m) in royalties off a book called Letters To Trump and another named A MAGA Journey.
He is still receiving royalties from older books too, such as The Art Of The Deal, which came out in 1987 and netted the former president $50,000 (about £37,000) to $100,000 (about £75,000) in the past year.
His wife Melania is also helping bring in some cash; she received $237,000 (about £178,000) for speaking to the conservative gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans in April.
Legal costs
While the disclosure papers do not detail most of Mr Trump’s losses, it does list some fines he has been forced to pay after several court cases.
One was the civil fraud case over is assets, which saw him fined $454m (£341m) – a decision he has said he will appeal. He listed his debt to the New York attorney general’s office as more than $50m (£38m).
Before that, he was ordered to pay $83.3m (about £63m) in a defamation case against E Jean Carroll, who he was found liable for sexually assaulting.
He didn’t list his legal fees in the disclosure, but they are bound to be sizeable as he is also facing a number of criminal trials.
He has already been found guilty of falsifying business records to commit election fraud, and is set to be sentenced after the election.
And he is set to face two further criminal trials – one related to his role in the January 6 riots and the other over his alleged efforts to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia.
What is Trump’s net worth?
Forbes’ real time net worth tracker estimates he is worth around $4bn (£3bn) as of 1 October.
Read more:How reality TV helped get Trump to White House – could it happen again?
Kamala Harris
Image: Pic: AP
Before Ms Harris became vice president in 2021, she had a lengthy career as a prosecutor.
Having earned a law degree in 1989, she started out as a deputy prosecutor and worked her way through the ranks to be elected attorney general of California in 2010, before becoming a senator in 2016.
California government figures suggest the Democratic presidential candidate would have earned an annual salary of between $143,571 and $158,775 for the period she was attorney general.
Meanwhile, all Senators have a government-paid salary of $174,000 (about £131,000) as of 2024, according to US Senate figures. Ms Harris earns more than that as vice president, but those figures will be covered later.
Her husband Doug Emhoff, who she married in 2014, has had career success too, having spent more than two decades as an entertainment lawyer before he began teaching at Georgetown Law School when his wife was elected vice president in 2020.
Image: Ms Harris and Doug Emhoff married in 2014. Pic: Reuters
According to a 2019 Forbes profile, the couple owned three homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC.
In her most recent financial disclosure, reported by CNBC in August, Ms Harris listed securities investments personally owned worth between $800,000 (about £600,000) to $1.75m (£1.3m) and personal cash holdings of $550,000 (about £413,000) to $1.1m (about £830,000).
Her husband has investments worth at least $1m (about £750,000) and at least $250,000 (about £188,00) in cash, CNBC reporteed.
What is Harris’s net worth?
Her net worth has regularly been the subject of social media debate since 2022, after a graphic was shared online suggesting her worth had jumped from $6.3m in 2019 to $28m in 2022.
The graphic, which also claimed Joe Biden’s worth had gone from $9m to $41m in the same period, is completely unsubstantiated. But that hasn’t stopped it resurfacing months before the election.
The reality is Ms Harris and her husband were worth an estimated $6m in 2019 and are worth around $8m (£6m) now, according to Forbes.
Read more:Harris says anyone breaking into her home is ‘getting shot’
Tim Walz
Image: Pic: Reuters
Mr Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, was a high school teacher for much of his career.
He has the least wealth of any of the candidates, according to his most recent financial disclosure, which reportedly shows that he owns no stocks, bonds or real estate.
Mr Walz’s current salary as governor of Minnesota is $127,629 (about £96,000). He was eligible for a raise last year to $149,550 (£112,000), but he chose not to accept it, according to the state.
In 2019, after Mr Walz was elected governor, he and his wife, who is a school teacher, sold their Minnesota home and moved into the governor’s mansion. They listed the four-bedroom house for $315,000 after buying it in 1997 for $145,000, CNBC reported.
But it is Mr Walz’s retirement savings accounts which seem to make up much of his wealth – the biggest of which is a 2030 target date retirement fund worth between $100,000 (about £75,000) and $250,000 (about £188,000), according to CNN.
What is Walz’s net worth?
Forbes estimates the Walzs’ net worth stands at just over $1m (about £750,000), with government pensions earned through their state, federal and military careers making up the majority of their wealth.
Read more:The arrest that changed Tim Walz’s life
JD Vance
The Republican vice presidential candidate has millions of dollars worth of assets, including a sizable stake in two businesses and a pricey property, according to his financial disclosure.
Mr Vance first put himself in the spotlight with his bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, which was published in 2016.
Its publisher HarperCollins has said the memoir sold more than three million copies before Mr Vance was selected as Mr Trump’s running mate, and a further 650,000 copies were bought in the 10 days after the announcement in July. The extra sales led the publishers to print hundreds of thousands more copies.
The 40-year-old will also have received more royalties when the book was made into a Netflix film in 2020.
But Mr Vance has amassed a fortune without those royalties.
His biggest asset is his Schwab brokerage account, which he values between roughly $2.2m (£1.7m) and $7.5m (£5.6m), according to CNN.
He also listed a property worth between $500,000 and $1m, $250,000 to $500,000 worth of bitcoin and checking and savings accounts valued between $315,000 and $815,000, along with a number of accounts and fund investments held by his wife, lawyer Usha Vance.
While only one property is listed on his financial disclosure, Forbes reported in July that the Vances own three homes: one in Washington DC with an estimated worth of $850,000, another in Cincinnati worth around $1.8m and a Virginia home also valued at about $1.8m.
As a senator for Ohio, Mr Vance also has a yearly salary of $174,000 (about £131,000).
What is Vance’s net worth?
In July, Forbes estimated Mr Vance’s net worth to be around $10m (about £7.5m).
Read more:How Vance used ‘hillbilly’ background to catapult himself to top
What do presidents and vice presidents earn?
For 2024, the vice president’s annual salary is $284,600 (about £214,000) – an increase that started this year. Before that, it was $235,100.
The president’s annual salary is $400,000 (about £300,000) – a figure set by Congress in 2001.
Source : Sky News
