President Donald Trump cooked up a series of bizarre explanations for his massive jump in fortune in his second term when confronted by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ross Douthat.
Trump — when asked about Forbes’ reporting estimating that his net worth has swelled by $3 billion since his return to office — swiftly got defensive.
“Well, so did everyone’s,” he replied during the episode that aired Sunday.
“... Everyone’s — my net worth did not go up by $3 billion, for the record,” Douthat noted.
“Well, you should’ve had stock,” said Trump, who doubled down on his “stock” explanation before elaborating further.
“I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don’t care. I make — I have a lot of money and far more than I ever thought I’d have and I guess it’s gone up, I don’t even know,” he continued.
“I have a son who’s a very straight, good guy. He watches over money. I don’t even talk to him about it. He watches. He gives — they gave my money — I have a lot of cash, I’ve had a lot of cash, long before I came in here. I don’t take a salary, you know?”
Moments later, he claimed to know “nothing about” World Liberty Financial, his family cryptocurrency venture that he founded with Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, and their sons back in 2024.
Trump’s response was torn apart by critics on social media, including users on X who called it “out of touch,” “politically & culturally tone deaf” as well as others who wondered aloud whether it’s helping the GOP much, considering last week’s midterms referendum on his second term.
Dan Alexander — a senior editor at Forbes who regularly writes about Trump’s political profiteering and has calculated his net worth for the business magazine — used a lengthy thread on social media to note that the president’s fortune grew from $2.3 billion in March 2024 to $7.3 billion in September 2025 after he made public Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
He also pointed to Trump’s crypto cash-in after winning a second term, noting that it’s made the ethics scandals of his first administration look like “small potatoes.”
Later in the thread, he fact-checked the president, writing that “almost none” of his gains from fall 2024 to the following year came from stock and his claim that he doesn’t pay attention to his net worth “flies in the face of more than 40 years of Forbes reporting.”
“There may be no one else in America who has cared more about where he or she ranks on the Forbes 400 since its inception in 1982 than Donald Trump,” Alexander declared.
You can read Alexander’s full thread here and watch more of Trump’s interview on “60 Minutes” below.