Donald Trump deep in debt while foreign money keeps coming: disclosure

Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter

Dave Levinthal, Editor-in-Chief
August 15, 2024 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs the courtroom after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images)

The finances of Republican nominee former President Donald Trump include gallons of red ink — particularly with the addition of recent legal judgments, according to a new presidential financial disclosure released Thursday.

Trump reported debts between $346 million and $455 million throughout 2023, from a legal judgments and property mortgages.

The latest disclosure shows Trump's financial liabilities from two New York court cases, in which Trump was found him liable for defamation and sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll, as well as fraud via the Trump Organization.

The damages owed to Carroll are noted on the disclosure, with one liability valued over $50 million and the other valued between $1 million and $5 million. Jurors awarded her $83.3 million in damages total.

The disclosure also noted over $50 million in debt to the New York Attorney General due to litigation. In April, Trump posted a more than $175 million bond for his more than $450 million liability in the case.

All three litigation liabilities are bonded and pending appeal, according to a note on the disclosure.

Trump was also found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 18.
From Bibles to golf: Trump's assets

Trump's public financial disclosure — a requirement for all presidential candidates — was released on Thursday after certification from an attorney for the Federal Election Commission.


Trump previously twice delayed releasing his financial disclosure. He now faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election — someone who is likely to raise questions on the campaign trail about Trump's exotic finances and potential conflicts of interest. Trump's foreign financial entanglements, in particular, dogged him throughout his term as president.

Much of Trump's more than 250-page disclosure was dedicated to listing numerous assets and sources of income.

As federal rules only require presidential candidates to list the values of most assets in broad ranges, it's impossible to know from the document alone how much Trump is truly worth.


But his wealth — despite his debts — remains staggering.

ALSO READ: 21 worthless knick-knacks Donald Trump will give you for your cash

Trump reported owning 114,750,000 shares of stock in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the company that owns the Truth Social platform.


Cash assets across various accounts were valued between $11.6 million and $56.4 million on the disclosure report.

Trump reported thousands of individual stock and securities assets. Investments, many in the $100,001 to $250,000 range, span a variety of companies ranging from pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, to defense contractors Qualcomm and Lockheed Martin to tech giants Apple and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

He reported an investment cryptocurrency worth at least $1 million and another in gold bars valued between $100,001 and $250,000.

Trump also reported income from a variety of hustles, including more than $4.47 million from the "Letters to Trump" book and more than $505,000 from the "A MAGA Journey" book. Trump's stake in a Bible venture with musician Lee Greenwood netted Trump $300,000.





Trump once again earned nearly a quarter of a million dollars from an April 2024 speaking engagement for LGBTQ+ group, Log Cabin Republicans.

Curiously, Trump reported earning $35,000 from "proceeds received from the sale of helicopter parts" through DJT Aerospace LLC, one of his dozens of business entities.

Trump continues to be a union pensioner, too, taking in $90,776 from his Screen Actors Guild Pension at a monthly rate of $6,484, per his disclosure. A 2013 World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee, Trump also received $11,632 from his American Federation of Television and Radio Artists pension.


And although Trump's long run as the headliner on NBC's "The Apprentice" is long behind him, Trump did report receiving between $100,001 and $1 million in royalty payments from a production company, Trump Productions LLC, related to the show.

Golf remains big business for Trump, with the former president reporting golf-related income into the nine-figures, including $37.17 million in income from his club in Bedminster, N.J., and $33.54 million from his club in Jupiter, Fla. He reported more than 15.23 million in Euro income from a golf resort in Ireland and another 7.28 million in Euro income from a related hotel.

Trump made more than $7.15 million from licensing fees from NFT International Inc., a company that marketed digital Trump trading cards sold for $99 a pop.


The former president earned millions of dollars from various investments and financial arrangements in the Middle East, including the countries of Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

While Trump incessantly complains about China, he maintains numerous trademarks of his name — "Trump" — in that country, for several hundred stated purposes that include "business clothing," "toy rentals," "chemical research," "ship building," "operating lotteries," "handwriting analysis," "bookmobile services" and "lingerie."

In an indication of Trump's global business reach, the former president also maintains trademarks of his name and company names in Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, the European Union, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.





A "Donald J. Trump Signature Collection" trademark Trump had in Venezuela — an avowed enemy of the United States — expired on Jan. 12, 2023, Trump's disclosure indicates.

Trump University — Trump's defunct for-profit real estate education venture for which he paid a $25 million civil penalty for fraud — made a cameo in the copyright section of Trump's financial disclosure for a book Trump co-wrote.

Trump's campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment.

Alexandria Jacobson is a Chicago-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, focusing on money in politics, government accountability and electoral politics. Prior to joining Raw Story in 2023, Alex reported extensively on social justice, business and tech issues for several news outlets, including ABC News, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She can be reached at alexandria@rawstory.com. More about Alexandria Jacobson.