Since Trump announced on April 3 that he would impose reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners including China, Japan, and Vietnam, stock markets around the world have begun to experience different degrees of diving - the US stock market has experienced an epic collapse. After the policy was announced, the Nasdaq index futures fell by 4.7% in a single day, the SP 500 index futures fell by 5%, and the Dow Jones futures fell by 1,822 points at one point. As of April 9, the SP 500 index had fallen by 18.9% from its February high, and its market value had evaporated by $5.8 trillion, setting a record for the worst four-day decline since 1950; technology stocks have become the hardest hit area of this stock market crash. Apples stock price plummeted by 23% in four days, and the market value of seven major technology giants such as Microsoft and Nvidia evaporated by a total of $1.65 trillion. This impact is directly due to the risk of supply chain disruptions - 75% of Apples components rely on production in Asia, and the pressure of tariff cost transmission is huge; Bloomberg statistics show that the total market value of global stocks has shrunk by $10 trillion, the Vietnamese stock market fell by more than 6% in a single day, and the Nikkei 225 fell by 1.6% in a single day. The index plummeted nearly 3%, and the three major European stock indices all fell by more than 1%.
When the nest is overturned, all the eggs will be broken. While global investors are heartbroken, Trump himself is not immune to this global crash.
Personal wealth was bitten back by $500 million
According to a report by Forbes on April 8, when Trump announced the massive tariff plan on April 2, his net worth was estimated at $4.7 billion. However, within a week, his assets fell to $4.2 billion, evaporating $500 million in a week. The biggest loss of his personal wealth came from his Trump Media and Technology Group, whose stock price has fallen by about 5% since April 3. Trump holds 114.75 million shares, and this item alone has evaporated about $170 million of his total assets.
In addition, Trump also holds a large number of shares in technology giants. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), presidential candidates must submit personal financial disclosure reports by May 15 each year, covering their assets, liabilities and sources of income, including stock investments, etc. As a presidential candidate, Trump must comply with this regulation for disclosure. Its latest disclosed 2024 report shows that Trump holds stocks in Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta Platforms, Berkshire Hathaway, PepsiCo, JPMorgan Chase, etc., with values ranging from US$100,000 to US$1 million, of which Apple, Microsoft and Nvidias holdings are all worth more than US$500,000. The total value of the above stocks alone is between US$2.25 million and US$4.75 million. If Trump does not significantly change his stock positions within 8 months after the disclosure, the plunge will have a significant impact on his book wealth.
Image source: Trumps personal financial disclosure report
In addition, the value of the presidents real estate portfolio shrank by about $90 million during this period, from $660 million to $570 million. His golf-related assets also suffered losses because many of the golf balls, clubs and jerseys sold in his pro shop are imported.
In addition, Trumps family crypto project WLFI also suffered huge losses from trading ETH. On April 9, according to Lookonchain monitoring, a wallet suspected to be related to WLFI sold 5,471 ETH at an average price of $1,465 for $8.01 million. The address previously spent a total of about $210 million to buy 67,498 ETH at an average price of $3,259, and the current book loss has reached about $125 million.
The average loss of the worlds richest people starts from 10 billion
The Guardian reported that since Trump announced the tariff increase on April 3, as of the close of April 4, the worlds 500 richest people lost a total of $536 billion in the first two days of stock trading, which is the largest two-day wealth loss ever recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Among them, the wealth of several wealthy people who supported Trump or attended Trumps inauguration in January has shrunk to varying degrees, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and others being the first to bear the brunt. The figure below is the real-time ranking of Bloomberg Billionaires (as of April 9).
The picture shows the Bloomberg Billionaires Ranking on April 9
Musk, the worlds richest man and CEO of Tesla, has been hit hardest by the sharp drop in his wealth after becoming a high-profile and controversial figure in the Trump administration, with his net worth evaporating by $31 billion by the close of trading last Friday as the stock price plummeted. Musks wealth has shrunk by about $143 billion since the beginning of this year, but he still sits firmly on the throne of the worlds richest man with a net worth of $290 billion.
Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and owner of Instagram and WhatsApp, suffered the second-largest loss at more than $27 billion. The worlds third-richest person, with an estimated net worth of $181 billion, was hit hard by the plunge in Metas market value. The companys shares fell nearly 14% in two days as the tariff war hits technology companies particularly hard. Many of the worlds largest companies rely on Asian markets for manufacturing, computer chips and IT services, and Asian markets are among the countries Trump has imposed the toughest tariffs on. Zuckerberg, who made a dramatic Trump turn on Meta weeks before Trump took office, has seen his personal wealth evaporate by more than $26.5 billion so far this year.
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos had the third-highest two-day loss at $23.5 billion. Amazon, the worlds leading seller of imported goods, has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value this year. Chinese sellers account for more than 50% of Amazons third-party marketplace, and its cloud services business relies heavily on technology produced by manufacturers in the region. In February, Bezos $10 billion Climate and Biodiversity Fund stopped funding one of the worlds most important climate certification organizations, a move some saw as a capitulation to Trump and his opposition to climate action. Bezos, the worlds second-richest person with an estimated net worth of $192 billion, has seen his wealth evaporate by $47.2 billion so far this year.
Despite the two-day plunge, not all billionaires have seen their net worths fall. Buffett, chairman and largest shareholder of savvy investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, has seen his wealth rise to $154 billion this year. He did lose $2.57 billion in wealth during the two-day stock market crash, but his net worth has increased by $11.9 billion so far this year.
Trumps tariff policy is a high-risk experiment that deeply binds personal political demands with financial markets. The huge evaporation of wealth of Trump and other richest people in the world in just a few days not only exposes the conflict of interests between policymakers and the capital market, but also reveals the self-paradox of protectionism in the era of globalization - when politicians try to build a wall with tariffs, the first thing to collapse is often their own wealth empire. For investors, this storm once again verifies an iron rule: in a highly interconnected global market, no one can really stay out of trouble.
