WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled new documents Wednesday setting his personal fortune at more than $10 billion and his annual income at more than $362 million.
The celebrity businessman said he filed a personal financial disclosure form with federal regulators Wednesday afternoon, though he has not released the form publicly. The $10 billion figure — up nearly 15 percent since the previous year, by Trump’s calculation — makes him the wealthiest person to ever run for president, far surpassing previous magnates like Ross Perot, business heirs like Steve Forbes or private-equity investors like Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee.
Among the sources of his income has been $214 million in payments from NBC related to his reality television show, “The Apprentice.” NBC recently cut its ties with Trump.
There was little information provided Wednesday about how Trump calculated the figure. In a statement that accompanied the financial information, his campaign wrote the federal forms are “not designed for a man of Mr. Trump’s massive wealth.”
“The numbers will be far in excess of what anybody thought,” Trump said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” ”I built a great company.”
Despite the filing, skepticism about his net worth is likely to remain.
Trump, for example, valued his personal brand and marketing deals at $3.3 billion when he announced his candidacy. Forbes Magazine, however, valued his brand at just $125 million. And that was before Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants cost him business partnerships with companies such as Macy’s and Univision.
Trump in the past has taken umbrage at suggestions he might not be as fantastically wealthy as he says. In 2009, he sued author Timothy O’Brien for defamation after O’Brien wrote that Trump’s net worth might be as low as $150 million.
Trump lost the suit and a subsequent appeal. In a deposition, the panel of appellate judges noted, Trump conceded that his public disclosures of his wealth depended partly on his mood.
“Even my own feelings affect my value to myself,” Trump said.