Today on Forbes, inside Donald Trump's billion-dollar golf empire.

Donald Trump has a long history of embellishment around his success as a businessman,

for years lobbying Forbes to pump up its estimates of his net worth,

occasionally while using the name John Barron, a persona he invented,

and even outright lying about the size of his penthouse and other properties. And when it comes to his portfolio of golf courses,

Trump can stretch the truth like a par five. Legal documents revealed that Trump has improperly

tallyed sunk costs, overvalued land, and undervalued

his membership liabilities, deposits he would have to return to his course's golfers if

they leave the club.

While the financial disclosure reports he has released his president and other public

filings offer little in terms of how he arrived at the numbers. Trump has also inflated the size of his golf

course's real estate. For instance, while he long claimed in marketing materials that Trump

National Doral was 800 acres, property records show the resort is less than 700. But regardless of

the inaccuracies or inconsistencies, make no mistake, Trump's golf empire

is worth a fortune. Together, the 14 courses he owns, along with one other course that bears his

name through a licensing deal, pulled in more than $350 million in estimated revenue in 2024,

and Forbes values the properties collectively at roughly $1 billion, a sixth of a $6.1 billion net worth.

Forbes estimates that Doral alone is worth $255 million net of debt, making it the second most

valuable property in his entire real estate portfolio

after the $564 million Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump's Gulf Empire is also on the upswing, even after he sold off his lease for a public

course in the Bronx in 2023, under pressure from New York officials and judges.

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