Trump drops off Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans

• A factor in Trump falling off the list of 400 richest Americans was that the deal to merge his social media company Truth Social with a SPAC remained in limbo.
• "If Trump's platform were thriving, he would probably have no trouble finding alternate financing. But it's not, and there is little reason to be optimistic about Truth Social's future," according to Forbes.

Zoom out: The ranking comes a week after a New York state judge ruled ahead of Trump's civil fraud trial, which began this week, that he committed fraud by exaggerating his net worth on financial records.

• N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James alleges in a court filing that Trump's annual net worth was exaggerated by 17-39%, or between $812 million and $2.2 billion, during the period 2011 to 2021.
• Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, denies any wrongdoing and insists the case is a witch-hunt and attempt to damage him so he doesn't "do as well as I'm doing in the election."
• Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Context: Trump previously fell off the Forbes 400 list in 2021, for the first time in 25 years. His wealth at the time was estimated at $2.5 billion, or $400 million short of the amount needed to be included.

• The magazine cited his big-city real estate holdings, whose value "languished" as a result of COVID-19, as the prevailing reason.
• He rejoined in 2022.

For the record: Forbes listed Tesla, X and Space X's Elon Musk as the richest person in the U.S., with an estimated net worth of $251 billion.

Go deeper: What we know about the Trump civil fraud trial in New York