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Trump Falls on Forbes Billionaires List; Bezos Rises to Top


FILE - Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, May 5, 2016.
FILE - Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, May 5, 2016.

U.S. President Donald Trump's net worth fell by $400 million last year, down to an estimated $3.1 billion, causing him to plummet 222 places on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's billionaires, released Tuesday.

Trump slipped from 544th richest in 2017 to 766th in 2018. It is the second consecutive year that Trump's fortune has dwindled.

Trump's slide down the rankings of the world's wealthy comes as a record 35 people have joined Forbes list of billionaires.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from the year before. Rounding out the top three are Microsoft's Bill Gates with $90 billion and investor Warren Buffett with $84 billion.

The richest person in Europe and fourth on the list is the boss of luxury goods firm LVMH, Bernard Arnault, who has a fortune of $72 billion.

The U.S. has the most billionaires by country, with 585, followed by China. California alone has 144 billionaires, more than any country besides the U.S. and China.

Germany has the most of any European country, with 123. India has 119 billionaires, and Russia has 102. Hungary and Zimbabwe made their first appearances on the annual list, with one billionaire each.

Ten Saudi Arabians who usually feature among the top 100, including prominent tech investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, were left off the list, "due to a lack of clarity about what they currently own," Forbes explained, following a recent Saudi government crackdown on corruption within its ranks.

The list featured a record 256 women, led by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, worth $46 billion.

According to Forbes, the 2,208 billionaires who made this year's list together are worth $9.1 trillion, roughly 4 percent of all the money in the world.

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