Ex-Forbes reporter says Trump lied about his wealth

Source: Huffington Post

Former Forbes reporter Jonathan Greenberg says that President Donald Trump lied to him in order to make the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans.

Emily Price of Fortune writes, “An audiotape of the reporter’s alleged 1984 conversation with Trump was published inThe Washington Post Friday, in which Trump is said to have disguised his voice.

“While working on the Forbes 400 in May 1984, the reporter says that Trump contacted him claiming to be an aide named John Barron. In 2016, The Washington Post revealed that Barron was actually Trump himself and that he often used the name to pretend to be his own spokesperson.

“During the call, Trump as Barron said that he had taken control of the business he ran with his father, and should be credited with owning those assets as well, which would make him a billionaire. Under a previous editor of the Forbes 400 list, the magazine had valued Trump’s assets at $200 million, only a fifth of what he claimed to own in interviews.

“The reporter, Jonathan Greenberg, says that over time he learned that Trump shouldn’t have appeared on the lists at all. For instance, in his first appearance on the Forbes 400 in 1982, Trump is listed as having $100 million when he was actually worth around $5 million at the time, according to documents that later came to light.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.