Trump's net worth dwindled to $3.5 billion, Forbes says

While Donald Trump's political fortunes were rising, his net worth was dropping to a mere $3.5 billion, or roughly a third of what he claimed during his successful campaign for the US presidency, according to the latest Forbes list of the world's billionaires.

Trump tumbled more than 100 spots to No. 544 on the magazine's 31st annual list, largely because of the impact of the slumping New York real estate market on his holdings.

"Midtown Manhattan real estate is down; therefore, so is Donald Trump's fortune," the business magazine said in a statement.

The developer-turned-politician, who ranked No. 205 last year, fell further behind to Bill Gates, the list's perennial leader.

Gates, the philanthropic co-founder of Microsoft Corp, was followed this year by Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett at No. 2 and Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos at No. 3.

While Trump's net worth slipped, more people were qualifying for the list. This year Forbes ranked a record 2,043 billionaires.

"Booming stock markets, higher commodities prices and plain old-fashioned entrepreneurship helped make this a record year in terms of wealth creation around the globe," Forbes editors Luisa Kroll and Kerry Dolan said.

Trump's current $3.5 billion net worth compares with $3.7 billion in October, when Forbes published its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans and a month before his Election Day upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

While campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in May, Trump's team filed a personal financial disclosure form that said his net worth was more than $10 billion.

Critics have said he has inflated the true value of his wealth, saying his tax returns would provide a more accurate snapshot of his financial status. But Trump has defied convention and refused to release his returns.

Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization, which Trump's sons have run since their father's inauguration, immediately responded to a request for comment on the Forbes list.

Gates maintained his No. 1 spot for the fourth year in a row, with his $86 billion fortune up from last year's $75 billion.

Buffett, the legendary value investor known as the "Oracle of Omaha," reclaimed the No. 2 berth after a two-year hiatus. His net worth surged to $75.6 billion from $60.8 billion.

Third place went to Bezos, who apparently was the biggest winner on the 2017 list. His wealth jumped to $72.8 billion, a gain of $27.6 billion from last year, Forbes said.

The Forbes list has 183 billionaires involved in the tech field, with a combined wealth of $1tn.

The global population of billionaires marks the biggest annual increase in the 31 years since the magazine began compiling the list. The list is largely dominated by US billionaires.

The number of women rose from 202 to 227, with a collective net worth of $852.8bn. For the second year running L'Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt was the world's wealthiest woman, with a net worth of $39.5bn.

Most of the richest women inherited their fortune, Forbes said. But the list also contained 15 new "self-made" women, mostly from Asian countries, including Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao of budget airline VietJet air.

Forbes' top ten:

Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder): $86bn

Warren Buffett (US investor): $75.6bn

Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder): $72.8bn

Amancio Ortega (Inditex founder): $71.3bn

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder): $56bn

Carlos Slim (Mexican magnate): $54.5bn

Larry Ellison (Oracle co-founder): $52.2bn

Charles Koch (US businessman): $48.3bn

David Koch (US businessman): $48.3bn

Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg founder): $47.5bn