(Bloomberg) — Former President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure revealed a sprawling portfolio that includes everything from his primary residence to revenue from resorts and crypto that he could theoretically tap to fuel his 2024 White House comeback bid.
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One of Trump’s biggest sources of income was a Miami-based company that owns golf courses and a resort, producing $145.8 million from 2022 through April 30 of this year. His Mar-a-Lago property in West Palm Beach, Florida, generated $52.3 million over the same period, while Trump Ruffin Tower in Las Vegas took in $32 million from condominium sales and hotel related revenue.
Trump valued each of the three holdings at more than $50 million in a filing to the Federal Election Commission released on Monday. Federal candidates disclose the value of assets and some types of income, including dividends, capital gains, interest, rent and royalties, in broad ranges. Other types, like salaries and speaking fees, must be disclosed in exact sums.
CIC Digital LLC, which earns money through licensing Trump’s image on nonfungible tokens, which produced income of $9.7 million, and held a crypto wallet with at least $1 million in Ethereum that produced $2.8 million in income. In his previous disclosure, the wallet held at most $500,000 and generated no income. He valued Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which owns his Truth Social platform, at between $5 million and $25 million. It generated $3 million in income.
Polls show Trump as the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The real estate developer-turned reality television star-turned politician regularly touts his business acumen but rarely mentions his personal fortune. The disclosure shows that his businesses continue to generate income he could use to finance his campaign or defend himself in the burgeoning legal battles he faces. Trump’s legal bills reached $25.5 million in the first six months of 2023.
In July, Trump had to file revisions to the first disclosure he filed as a 2024 presidential candidate, covering 2021 and most of 2022, with the Office of Government Ethics, providing exact amounts for his income from his hotels and other businesses. The new Federal Election Commission disclosure, will similarly be reviewed by the ethics office. It was originally due in on May 15 but Trump requested and was granted two 45-day extensions.
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The disclosure provides greater detail about many of his assets and what underlies them. For two Irish-based companies, the disclosure lists dozens of tenants. They include individuals who are identified by honorific and last name and companies, with the amounts of rent they pay denominated in euros.
Trump registered his name as a trademark in 81 jurisdictions, including organizations that cover most of Europe and French-speaking Africa. They include products as diverse as timeshares in Cuba, video games in Iran, health spas in Kazakhstan, laundry bleach in Saudi Arabia and rest homes in China. In a 49-page exhibit, he lists them all, as well as his “Make America Great Again” slogan and other brands.
“While the value of each individual registered trademark is not readily ascertainable, the filer believes that there is significant value to such intellectual property rights in the aggregate,” the disclosure says.
Though he has mounting legal fees with which he’s using money raised through his leadership political action committee to pay for, Trump did not disclose any personal debt to lawyers or law firms on the disclosure. He listed nine outstanding loans totaling at least $250 million, and six that were paid off in 2022.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
