Supporters of President Donald Trump contended during the Republican National Convention this week the former businessman and reality television star has truly been seeking to serve the American people since taking office.
It has come at a financial cost to him.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden, now the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, took in $15.6 million in his first two years after leaving office, according to The Wall Street Journal.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged that he would not accept his $400,000-per-year salary if he were to be elected president.
However, because he is required by law to be paid, the president has been donating his salary each quarter to various government agencies and using it as a way to highlight initiatives he supports.
For example, for the first two quarters of 2020, he wrote $100,000 checks to the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
Not only has Trump not taken a salary, but Bloomberg reported his “net worth has declined $300 million in the past year to $2.7 billion, erasing 10% of his fortune since he took office” in 2017.
“The drop marked the sharpest decline since Bloomberg began tracking his fortune in 2015. It started with a decrease in income across the Trump Organization’s portfolio of office buildings and was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on property markets,” according to the news outlet.
Bloomberg noted some of Trump’s highest money-generating properties are in Manhattan, which was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, bright spots in his financial picture include “branding and licensing businesses” which continued “to generate tens of millions dollars last year,” the outlet added.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the year Biden left office in 2017, he earned more than $11 million, primarily through speaking fees and payments for books that he and his wife Dr. Jill Biden wrote.
The Bidens currently have three homes. They own a 7,000-square-foot lakeside house in Wilmington, Delaware, and a 4,800-square-foot house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. They also rent a 12,000-square-foot Georgian-style residence in McLean, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., according to The Washington Post.
The latter, which the couple has rented since 2017, “has five bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, marble fireplaces, a gym and a sauna,” The Post reported.
“Surrounded by Washington elite and sitting high above the Potomac River, there is an undeniable grandeur in the design of this home,” said an agent describing the home when it went on the market in 2015.
“This property makes an imposing statement with parking for over 20 cars and creates a perfect setting for the most lavish of events.”
