Billionaires were expected to be the major winners in a United States led by Donald Trump. That has not been the case: their wealth has declined during the first eight weeks of his presidency, according to a new ranking published by Forbes.
President Donald Trump counts many billionaires among his friends and supporters. However, having a pro-business president is not in itself a cause for celebration. Between 20 January — the date of Trump’s inauguration — and mid-March, the S&P 500 index fell by 7.9%, while the technology-focused Nasdaq dropped by 11.8%. Collectively, American billionaires are now “poorer” by 415 billion US dollars, Forbes reports. One reason for this decline lies in Trump’s erratic trade tariff policy. These constant shifts have fuelled uncertainty — something business leaders strongly dislike. A recession of 2.8% is expected for the first quarter, already dubbed the “Trumpcession”.
No billionaire has been affected as severely as Trump’s close ally, Elon Musk.
No billionaire has been affected as severely as Trump’s close ally, Elon Musk. On 20 January, the world’s richest man was worth 434 billion US dollars. Since then, reports have highlighted a sharp fall in Tesla car sales during the first two months of 2025, as well as internal protests from Tesla dealers. In this context, the company’s share price has fallen by 43% since the inauguration, erasing 104 billion US dollars from Musk’s wealth, which now stands at around 334.5 billion US dollars, according to Forbes. Despite a steep 24% drop in his net worth, he remains the wealthiest individual in the world. To put this in perspective: in 2024, Musk’s fortune was 195 billion US dollars.
The downturn in the markets has also had a major impact on several technology stocks. The “Magnificent Seven” — Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft — once high-performing, have collectively lost more than 1.5 trillion US dollars in market capitalisation since 20 January. The heads of several of these firms attended the inauguration at the Capitol as high-profile guests.
Among them, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) ranks second with 212.3 billion US dollars. Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) is in third place with 206.1 billion US dollars, while Larry Ellison (Oracle) now sits in fourth with 187.9 billion US dollars. Despite the losses recorded since January, the fortunes of these leaders remain significantly higher compared with 2024.
