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- Former President Donald Trump was not included on the list for the first time since 1996.
- Trump's net worth has plummeted since he became president in 2016.
- 51 billionaires dropped off Forbes' list, including Oprah Winfrey.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald Trump did not make Forbes' list of the 400 wealthiest Americans for the first time in 25 years.
Trump's net worth was estimated at $2.5 billion – just about $400 million shy of making the list this year, according to Forbes. The billionaire has lost about $600 million since the pandemic started as COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the commercial real-estate market.
Since he became president in 2016, Trump's wealth has continued to decline. From 1997 to 2016, he was ranked among the upper half of Forbes' 400 wealthiest Americans, but five years later he's slipped off the list completely.
The publication noted that the required net worth to make the top 400 list has risen from $2.1 billion to $2.9 billion. Trump was one of 51 people to be dropped from the list in 2021 – 31 of which have actually become richer this year than the previous year.
But, over the past year, technology stocks and crypto assets have surged with the work-from-home boom, while more traditional businesses like retail and real estate have taken a hit. The list saw a 14% turnover rate as billionaires like Trump fell from the list, while 44 new names joined the ranks of the wealthiest Americans – from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to 29-year-old crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as philanthropist Melinda French Gates.
Earlier this year, Forbes reported that the former president had dropped 298 spots on its Billionaire's list which was released in April - down from No. 1,001 to No. 1,299. Trump's commercial real estate assets - which account for about 75% of his income - have taken a significant hit from the pandemic, Bloomberg reported in March. The former president's hotel and resort lines, as well as his golf club have also seen declined interest due to travel restrictions.
Two rounds of impeachments, as well as Trump's ties to the Capitol Siege, have also tarnished Trump's brand. Following the attack on the Capitol in January, the PGA of America decided against hosting its annual tournament at Trump's golf club. Many other companies have also severed ties with Trump since his second impeachment.
Trump donated his $400,000 salary as president, but made about $1.6 billion from 2016 to 2020, according to Bloomberg data. During his presidency, Trump chose to hold onto his $3.5 billion in assets, instead of divesting them to stave off any perception of a conflict of interest. Forbes noted that if the president had sold his assets off his fortune could be worth as much as $7 billion.
In January, a public relations expert, Eric Schiffer, told Insider's Grace Dean that Trump's businesses might never recover from his presidency.
"Trump will exit the presidency with a brutal set of targets surrounding the heart of his brand, which will be a danger to his survival economically and that of his children, and likely will lead to excruciating pain of the type he has really never faced," Schiffer said.
Trump is one of several billionaires to fall off Forbes' list. Oprah Winfrey also dropped off the list for the first time since 1995, alongside several entrepreneurs, including Gap cofounder Doris Fisher and Nikola founder Trevor Milton.
See the full Forbes' list here