The inauguration of Joe Biden means that the era of the Donald Trump presidency is over.
Trump’s supporters may be hoping the 74-year-old will opt to run for office again in the future, but as yet it remains unclear what the future holds for the businessman.
Trump stepped down from his role in the Trump Organization after the 2016 election with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric stepping up to take charge of the company instead.
This is how Trump set up his businesses during his four years as the president of America.
The presidency was good for business overal
According to a report by Forbes, Trump’s businesses earned almost $2 billion of revenue in the first three years of his presidency alone.
While Trump was no longer technically in charge of the Trump Organization, he retained ownership of the company, which means those revenues have helped to swell his riches. It is suggested that Trump’s business success during his time as president has come mainly from his golf and club companies, while it has been a more difficult time for his hotel empire.
The Trump National Doral golf resort – which is located in Miami, Florida – has proven to be a massive success for the former president, bringing in over $200 million of revenue. Other Trump businesses to have thrived, relatively speaking, during the period between 2017 and 2019 include the Mar-a-Lago, where he often headed for a break.
Trump is expected to permanently relocate to Mar-a-Lago following Biden taking over as president – he has opened a new “Office of the Former President” at the base. A statement from the new office said Mr Trump “will always and forever be a champion for the American people” but it remains to be seen how he goes about doing this.
Returning to real estate?
A potential next move for Trump could be to return to real estate, where he made his fortune. He even had his own PC game, Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon, which came out in 2004.
Trump has form for dabbling in the casino business, having run sites such as the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, where he ran three casinos at the peak of his powers.
Some 8,000 people were employed by Trump’s casinos in the city alone and he memorably described his Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City as the “eighth wonder of the world”.
Those businesses eventually failed but could Trump gamble on casinos in the near future?
Impact of the pandemic
Like most companies, Trump’s businesses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was little the president could do to protect his interests against the virus given nobody predicted it was on the way and how much damage it could do to the world economy.
CNN reports that revenues at Trump’s businesses fell by 40 per cent last year, with that reduction not taking into account the last few weeks of his presidency.
The decline can be shown in the results posted by the Trump International Hotel Washington, where revenues collapsed by 63 per cent to just over $15 million in 2020.
Naturally, hotels have struggled for business over the last year as travel has been limited by shutdowns in order to restrict the spread of the virus.
Trump’s final financial disclosure also revealed that Turnberry, his Scottish golf resort, saw its revenues drop by more than 62 per cent to under $10 million during the course of last year.
Golf has been one of Trump’s favorite sectors and he owns more than a dozen courses.
Trump’s wealth slide
Partly due to the impact of the pandemic, Trump’s estimated net worth has taken a hit.
Forbes estimates that the former president is now worth around $2.5 billion, which Dan Alexander, a senior editor at Forbes, told Yahoo Finance is a “significant hit”.
It was previously believed Trump was worth as much as $4.5 billion, which would mean around 50 per cent of his cash has been lost.
Trump may yet be able to rebuild his billions through turning back to his business empire, but it is unclear whether the former president will instead seek to remain in politics.
What is for sure is that Trump’s business decisions will continue to make headlines for a long time into the future.
