How rich is Donald Trump?

“They’re wrong”, Trump told CNBC.

Trump claims he is worth over $10 billion; the magazine, in a recent analysis, pegs the number at less than half that figure: $4.5 billion.

“I don’t know. Whatever it is”, Trump concluded.

Despite the news media’s unwillingness to subject Donald Trump’s history or policies to the scrutiny routinely accorded the campaigns of less flamboyant (but more credible) presidential candidates, the greater problem is not Trump himself – we will always have the deluded and self-absorbed among us – but the large crowds that continue to cheer with wild abandon at each outrageous and ill-informed statement he makes.

“What I am by a wide margin more prominent than a performer is a specialist, and that is the sort of attitude this nation needs to bring it back”, the applicant said at the latest Republican presidential civil argument. “I have a lot of cash”.

The GOP frontrunner accused Forbes of not measuring accurately the value of his brand, and assured that just after the interview he had plans of signing a new branding worth “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

Forbes estimates that Trump has $327 million in cash and cash equivalents, while The Donald claims he has $793 million. At the time, Forbes’ estimate of Trump’s wealth is only $1.7 billion. In 1990 the situation was reversed as Trump feuded with the magazine over allegedly underestimating his total wealth.

In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump claimed he does not need to change his volatile, abrasive tactics and be “kinder and more mature”. “I’m under budget and ahead of schedule, like my projects”, he said.

But if it is any consolation to The Donald, he’s the wealthiest among the current roster of presidential candidates, according to Forbes. If you aspire to the upper echelon of financial life in this country – whose combined net worth is $2.34 trillion – you’d better get a move on, because the entry bar is higher than ever.