How Rich Are Biden, Trump and These Other Potential 2024 Presidential Candidates?

With the 2024 presidential election months away, on November 5, 2024, candidates have been dropping out of the race until just a handful of hopefuls remain. The U.S. president earns $400,000 a year, which might be a pay cut for some of these candidates, yet a huge pay bump for others.

Let’s explore the net worth of those who seem to be staying the course.

• Net Worth: $10 Million

President Joe Biden has said he has every intention of running for reelection in 2024. Biden served as former President Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009-2017. Before that, he served as a Delaware senator from 1973 until he took office as VP.

Since he first took office, his net worth received a boost of $2 million, putting him in the eight-figure range. His income soared in the past few years largely due to his salary as president, rising real estate values, rising interest rates on Biden’s investments, and a bullish stock market. Last year, the president and first lady Jill Biden earned a cumulative $620,000, according to their 2023 tax returns. The president earned a salary of $400,000, while Jill Biden earned $86,000 as a professor at Northern Virginia Community College. Jill Biden also earned $4,000 in book royalties. Together, the couple took in $55,000 in Social Security, $35,000 from pensions and annuities, and $39,000 in interest.

Most of the Biden’s wealth sits in real estate, with two properties in Delaware worth $4.5 million and $2.5 million.

• Net worth: $6.4 billion

Former president Donald Trump’s net worth has been on a roller coaster ride since his presidency in 2016. Forbes quoted his net worth at $6.4 billion as of March 2024, which is an increase of nearly $4 billion since he left office. 

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for Truth Social, the social media platform he launched in 2022, is worth $4.6 billion. The company went public following a merger with Digital World Acquisition Group, a publicly traded shell company, AP News announced in March. Trump owns 79 million shares.

Most of the rest of Trump’s fortune is in real estate, with holdings totaling $1.1 billion, including condos, hotels, commercial real estate buildings, single-family homes, and residential lots across the U.S.  He also owns profitable clubs and resorts across the world, worth an estimated $810 million according to Forbes.

He has pensions worth $2 million, $15 million in private aircraft, and $3 million in cryptocurrency.

• Net Worth: $2.5 million

Best known as the author of the spiritual self-help book “A Return to Love,” Marianne Williamson may be a long-shot in the presidential race as a Democrat going up against Biden in the primary. But she has a highly successful career as the author of 15 books, including three number one New York Times bestsellers.

Her work as an author and speaker brought in $7.5 million between 2013 and 2017, according to Forbes. However, Williamson also likes to spend money on clothes and trips. Her tax returns showed write-offs of $41,000 in clothing and $276,000 in travel over five years. 

Even so, her investments are doing well, with $841,000 in mutual funds and shares of stocks like Alphabet, Apple, and The Home Depot, according to Forbes. She also has cash holdings of roughly $250,000.

• Net Worth: $15 million

As a member of the famous Kennedy family, you might think Robert Kennedy Jr.’s net worth would number in the billions. The Kennedy family, in total, had a net worth of roughly $1.2 billion in 2015 — and has likely increased since then with the rise in real estate prices and the stock market. 

But, as one of Bobby Kennedy’s 11 children, RFK Jr. only gets a small portion of that pie. He holds at least $4 million in assets through Kennedy trusts, roughly half a million in investments through the Kennedy family office, Park Financial Holdings, and millions in commercial real estate. 

Records show that Kennedy also earned more than $5 million between 2022 and 2023 through his law firm, Kennedy & Madonna, and another $1.5 million as a consultant for the Wisner Baum law firm. He also received more than half a million in salary and bonuses for his work with the non-profit Children’s Health Defense.

His wife, Cheryl Hines, is wealthy in her own right, earning more than $1 million between 2022 and 2023 as an actress. She has between $600,000 and $1.7 million in retirement accounts that include stocks and bond index funds.

• Net Worth: $50,000

Cornel West, known as a teacher, author, actor, public speaker and musician, earned more than $15 million over the past 30 years. Yet, he seems to have nothing to show for it, telling Forbes, “I live paycheck to paycheck.” 

The 70-year-old presidential hopeful, running as an independent, has roughly $483,000 in tax liens for unpaid tax debt. He earned money as a public speaker and author, but, as an independent contractor, did not have any taxes withheld. 

Combined with a lavish lifestyle that included multiple apartments, alleged affairs with many women, and luxury cars, West squandered his earnings. He also had to pay child support following a divorce and was homeless briefly in the 1970s. It would seem he still hasn’t learned money management skills. 

His entire fortune now rests in a retirement account with roughly $280,000 and a home in Princeton, but these assets don’t cover his debts.

Brooke Barley contributed to a previous version of this article.