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Leadership

Donald Trump Is Worth Half of What He’s Claimed, Report Says

By
Alicia Adamczyk
Alicia Adamczyk
and
Money
Money
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By
Alicia Adamczyk
Alicia Adamczyk
and
Money
Money
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 8, 2016, 7:00 PM ET
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Thayer - RTSLVFXEric Thayer — Reuters

This piece originally appeared on Money.com.

He claims to be worth in excess of $10 billion — but the latest of a number of reports says Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s net worth is less than half that.

Wealth X, a consultancy firm, today released its annual Billionaires Census for 2015, which takes stock of the state of the world’s billionaires. It found a record number of billionaires in the world (2,473), and reported that the total wealth held by the richest people in the world reached a record $7.7 trillion.

It also provided MONEY with estimated net worths for individual billionaires, including Trump. While the former reality star claims he is worth $10 billion, Wealth X puts his worth at $4.5 billion. This is in line with what Forbesestimated earlier this year, while Bloomberg was much less generous, putting Trump at $2.9 billion.while Bloomberg was much less generous, putting Trump at $2.9 billion.

For more on Trump’s net worth, watch this Fortune video:

When Forbes released its annual Billionaires List in March, editor Randall Lane chronicled Trump’s tendency to try to inflate his net worth in conversations with the magazine over the previous three decades. Much of the discrepancy between what Trump and Forbes report appears to come from evaluating just how much the “Trump” brand is worth—not in dollars per se, but in reputation.

‘We soon learned to take the number he threw out to us for his net worth, immediately divide it by three and refine it from there,’ remembers Harold Seneker, who ran The Forbes 400 for the first 15 years of its existence.

In May, FORTUNE’s Shawn Tully calculated Trump’s wealth, pegging it at $3.9 billion. “Trump’s revenues are still not big enough, by a long shot, to back up the claim that his net worth is anywhere near that ‘in excess of $10 billion,’ even using bluebird assumptions,” Tully wrote.

Wealth X also provided MONEY with the net worths of four other notable billionaires. They calculated former Mayor of New York City (and newly-minted Trump nemesis) Michael Bloomberg is worth around $43.1 billion. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, is estimated to be worth $77.1 billion; investing titan Warren Buffett is pegged at $65.7 billion; and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is calculated to be worth $54.1 billion.

About the Authors
Alicia Adamczyk
By Alicia AdamczykSenior Writer
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Alicia Adamczyk is a former New York City-based senior writer at Fortune, covering personal finance, investing, and retirement.

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