7 Revelations from Donald Trump’s Financial Disclosure
Policy + Politics

7 Revelations from Donald Trump’s Financial Disclosure

Like almost everything associated with billionaire real estate tycoon and Olympic-level narcissist Donald Trump, the financial disclosure form he filed with the federal government this week in support of his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination was large, hard to believe, and self-referential to the point of parody.

Trump was required to file the form — which, at 92 pages, dwarfed the submissions of his opponents — in order to allow the public to flag any possible conflicts of interests that might disqualify him from sitting in the Oval Office. It lists his assets (totaling something between about $1.4 billion and infinity, considering how many properties are listed as being worth $50 million or more) and his liabilities, which come to about a quarter of a billion dollars in loans. Many of the assets Trump lists are marked as having a value that is “not readily ascertainable.”

Related: 15 Facts You Didn’t Know About Donald Trump

The filing lists 515 organizations in which Trump holds a position — anything from member to partner to director to president. Nearly 400 of those organizations bear Trump’s name or his initials. But then, as the filing shows, the Trump name in many ways is his business: Trump earned at least $9.5 million in royalties for licensing his brand for luxury hotels and products like energy drinks, bottled water, vodka, mattresses (though not for long) and more.

The filing is also remarkable in that it reveals rather a lot about Trump’s personal finances:

  • Most people might not know that Trump, who has both produced and appeared not just in multiple reality television programs, but Hollywood movies, is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and receives an annual pension of more than $110,000.

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  • Trump is best known as a real estate mogul, but the filing lists stocks, mutual fund and hedge fund holdings worth at least $78 million. The Donald’s preferred vehicle appears to be the BlackRock Obsidian fixed income hedge fund. According to the disclosure, he has between $25 million and $50 million invested there.

  • Trump has as much as $25 million in Capital One Bank checking or savings accounts and up to $5 million more in those types of accounts at JPMorgan Chase.

  • When it comes to stocks, Trump currently owns or has recently owned shares in Apple, Bristol Myers Squibb, Kinder Morgan and Caterpillar, among others. He also reported sizable capital gains through the sale of investments in Bank of America, Apple, Boeing, Best Buy and Facebook.

Related: As Trump Surges in the Polls, Hispanic Voters Flock to Hillary Clinton

  • One of Trump’s most interesting holdings, given the publicity he generated by claiming that Mexican immigrants to the U.S. are criminals and rapists is the Parametric Emerging Markets fund, which as of June 30, 2015 had a 6.2 percent weighting in Mexico.

  • Trump owns a company called Trump Follies LLC. While it might seem like a simple description of what’s been going on in the national political discussion for the past month, it’s actually a registered company in New York. What it does, though, is unclear. State filings provide no useful contact information and the company has no obvious presence on the Web.

  • And finally, considering Trump’s penchant for popping off for free, he gets paid well for speaking at private engagements. The direct-marketing company ACN Inc. paid him $450,000 for three separate speeches in recent years, and electronics giant Samsung paid $150,000 to hear from him.

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