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Throughout his career, both before and since he became president, Donald Trump has garnered a reputation for, shall we say, stretching the truth when it comes to issues both large and small. The latest of those untruths, according to Forbes, is the size of his gilded penthouse atop Trump Tower.
Trump, along with wife Melania and son Barron, lives in a Versailles-inspired 66th-floor penthouse triplex, which he’s occupied since the building opened in 1983. Per Forbes, which toured the space with Trump during the 2016 presidential race, the President claims the property is worth $200 million and spans 33,000 square feet—which would make it enormous, even by New York City standards. (To put that in perspective, the rumored $250 million condo atop 220 Central Park South—the city’s most expensive condo—reportedly spans 23,000 square feet.)
But Forbes did some digging in city records and found out that those numbers aren’t exactly true—and in fact, Trump may have exaggerated the size of his apartment by a factor of three. Per Forbes:
Records show Trump acquiring a 6,096-square-foot triplex apartment, occupying sections of floors 66 through 68, around the time Trump Tower opened in 1983. A decade later he expanded his penthouse, merging parts of two neighboring apartments into his home, according to the filings.
Ultimately, the total size of the Trump-owned portion of the 66th floor is about 10,996 square feet, per Forbes’s calculations—large, yes, but nowhere near 33,000. There’s also another resident on that floor, businessman Joel Anderson, who purchased his apartment in 1996, per city records.
Forbes also calls the value of Trump’s diamond-and-gold-encrusted apartment into question: Trump says it’s worth $200 million, and Douglas Elliman chief Howard Lorber told the Real Deal it could be worth as much as $100 million. Forbes, on the other hand, says that given the actual size of the penthouse, it would likely only be worth around $64 million.
This isn’t the first time that Trump has exaggerated the truth when it comes to Trump Tower: The building actually has 58 floors, but because Trump wanted it to be taller than the neighboring GM Building when it was being constructed, he included its large atrium and commercial space—which occupy what would be about 20 floors—in the total count (and in subsequent marketing materials when selling the building’s pricey condos), leading to the now-accepted 68-floor designation.
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