NEWS AND OPINION:
Stand clear, everyone. Forbes has released a list of the 25 wealthiest people in America. They top the list of the news organization’s annual roster of the 400 richest people in the nation. Ready?
“It was another great year to be rich, especially for the select few at the very top. With markets roaring, nearly all of the 25 wealthiest people in America got wealthier over the past 12 months — some by billions, or even tens of billions, of dollars,” Forbes said.
“In all, the top 25 billionaires on The Forbes 400 list are worth a collective $2.5 trillion. They hold nearly half of the $5.4 trillion in total wealth of the entire 400,” said the news organization in its report released Tuesday.
“This elite group is $471 billion richer than in 2023, with each of the top 25 up 31% on average, outpacing the 18% jump in wealth across list members overall and the S&P 500’s 27% return,” it added.
“The Forbes 400 is a roadmap of America’s great wealth. The 400 richest people in the nation are richer, and thus in many ways more powerful, than ever. It’s crucial to investigate who they are, how they made it, where they spend it and how they choose to (or, as is often the case, choose not to) donate it,” said Forbes senior editor Chase Peterson-Withorn in a statement.
Here’s who made the top 10, plus how much they’re worth.
• Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk ($244 billion)
• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($197 billion).
• Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg ($181 billion)
• Oracle chairman and cofounder Larry Ellison ($175 billion)
• Investor Warren Buffett ($150 billion).
• Google board member and co-founder Larry Page ($136 billion)
• Google board member and controlling shareholder Sergey Brin ($130 billion)
• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ($121 billion)
• Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($107 billion)
• Bloomberg LP cofounder Michael Bloomberg ($105 billion)
And what about former President Donald Trump? The longtime real-estate and casino maven is on the 400 list, ranking 319th with a net worth of $4.3 billion.
BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER
The aforementioned former President Donald Trump has an economic plan for the nation.
“For years, Americans have watched as our country has been stripped of our jobs and stripped of our wealth. We’ve watched our companies get sold off to foreign countries. But with my plan for the American economy, this will stop immediately. When I am president, we will begin to take other countries’ jobs and factories, bringing businesses and trillions of dollars back to the United States,” Mr. Trump wrote in an op-ed for Newsweek published Tuesday.
“Under my plan, American workers will no longer be worried about losing their jobs to foreign nations. Instead, foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to Americans. German car companies can become American car companies. We can beat China in electronic production. Manufacturers that have left us will come sprinting back to our shores,” he said.
“Here’s the deal that I will be offering to companies and manufacturers around the planet: The United States will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burdens, and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet — but only if you make your products here in America and hire American workers for the job,” Mr. Trump noted.
“If these companies don’t take the deal, they’ll pay a tariff when they send their products — made in another country — to us. And we will use the hundreds of billions of tariff dollars to benefit American citizens,” he said.
Mr. Trump also wants to lower the taxes of American workers, cut the business tax from 21% to 15%, lower energy prices, appoint a “Manufacturing Ambassador,” and jettison burdensome regulations.
“This is how we will make America affordable again. Vote Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from South Korea to North Carolina, and from Germany to Georgia. We will bring back the American dream, bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” Mr. Trump advised.
FOXIFIED
Fox News continues to best its rivals, marking 91 consecutive quarters as the most-watched cable news channel in primetime, according to Nielsen Media Research.
During the third quarter of the year, Fox News averaged an average daily primetime audience of 2.6 million while CNN drew 896,000 and MSNBC 1.4 million. Throughout the day, Fox News enjoyed an average daily audience of 1.6 million; CNN attracted 557,000 viewers and MSNBC 889,000. Fox News also aired 70 of the top 100 telecasts in cable news during the time period.
The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew an enormous audience of 14.2 million on Fox News. The network also scored its highest-rated convention coverage of all time during the Republican National Convention, attracting a daily average of 10.4 million viewers.
The top regular programs for the three-month period were “The Five” (3.5 million viewers), “Jesse Watters Primetime” (3.4 million), “Hannity” (3.2 million), “Gutfeld!” (2.8 million) and “The Ingraham Angle” (2.7 million).
FOR THE LEXICON
“Hillbilly Energy.”
This phrase comes to us from Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, author of the bestselling 2016 book titled “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”
His new phrase was released by the Trump/Vance campaign to remind the nation that everyday Americans are strong, industrious and ready to go the distance to succeed. The phrase also became a popular hashtag on X — #hillbillyenergy.
POLL DU JOUR
• 20% of U.S. adults say “building an economy that gives every America a chance to succeed” is the most important issue for the next U.S. president to address.
• 17% say “getting costs and inflation under control” is the most important issue.
• 16% say “safeguarding the American democratic system.”
• 11% say “fixing a broken democratic system.”
• 11% say “getting immigration under control.”
• 8% say “protecting personal freedoms.”
• 5% say “making changes from past mistakes.”
• 5% say “ensuring that the best of America is still to come.”
• 2% say a president should be “someone who understands my life.”
• 1% say a president should be “someone like me.”
• 5% skipped the question.
SOURCE: An Ipsos poll of 1,029 U.S. adults conducted online Sept. 20-22.
• Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washigntontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.