Donald Trump got knocked off the Forbes 400 list, but you might not like the reason why

Donald Trump got booted today from the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. This marks the first time in 25 years that his name won’t appear on the magazine’s annual list—which the former president is said to follow religiously. Last year, Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth was $2.5 billion, good enough for 339th place. This year, it also put his worth at $2.5 billion, but that left him $400 million short because the rest of America’s top earners saw massive gains on things like tech stocks and crypto during a period when millions were struggling to navigate job losses and economic uncertainty.

In fact, during the pandemic, the world’s richest became a staggering $5 trillion richer, Forbes said six months ago. But about 75% of Trump’s fortune is reportedly assets in commercial real estate, which hasn’t exactly been a hot market lately. The minimum net worth to make Forbes‘s top 400 rose this year from $2.1 billion to $2.9 billion. Trump is one of 51 individuals who got dropped from the new list, and 31 of these people actually became richer over the past year.

For quick perspective, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is 70% richer today than he was at the start of the pandemic. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page more than doubled their wealth, while Warren Buffett increased his net worth by about 50%, and Bill Gates and Walmart’s Jim Walton both got about a third richer. And Elon Musk is currently 700% richer.

You can’t talk about Trump missing the Forbes list’s cut, though, without noting one irony: If he’d followed ethics officials’ advice to divest from his businesses, not only would Trump have avoided racking up 3,400 conflicts of interest while he was in the Oval Office (hello, Pennsylvania Avenue Trump International Hotel!), but also this would have diversified his financial portfolio, which probably would have made him more money.