Mother Jones illustration; Evan Vucci/AP
Donald Trump filed his latest financial disclosure on Thursday, revealing how parts of his business empire have benefitted from his time in politics—and how other parts have frayed. Trump reported high revenues at many of his American properties, but his commercial real estate sales, which helped rebuild his wealth in the early 2000s, have all but disappeared. One standby for Trump has been revenue from partnering with foreign investors to build properties in far-flung locations—last year, he reported having earned $8 million from partners in Dubai, Oman, and Turkey.
Those overseas deals do not include an announced deal to build a Trump-branded tower in Saudi Arabia. In the past, Trump has maintained close relationships with his foreign business partners, even while in office. Some received VIP treatment at his first inauguration or even vacationed with his adult children. Trump already has a pre-existing business relationship with the Saudis through his golf courses’ participation in the Saudi-owned LIV Golf tour, which has brought several events to Trump properties, despite protests from 9/11 families over the kingdom’s alleged connections to the attack.
The former president reported income from merchandise sales, adding up to somewhere in the single-digit millions. His other attempts to cash in on his political fame have shown some success—he reported having earned $7.1 million from the sale of Trump-themed NFTs.
By far Trump’s most valuable asset, on paper at least, is his ownership of 114 million shares in the company behind........