Twitter Cofounder Jack Dorsey’s Net Worth Has Tripled To Nearly 240% Since Donald Trump Became President
In the three years since Donald Trump became president of the United States, the net worth of Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey has soared nearly 240%, more than almost any billionaire in the country. He now sits atop a $4.4 billion fortune, more than triple the $1.3 billion he had at the start of Trump’s presidency.
Twitter’s stock has climbed 105%, boosting Dorsey’s stake in the company from $275 million to $610 million. A bigger share of his wealth comes from Dorsey’s other business, payments firm Square. The Twitter chief executive also serves as CEO of Square, in which he held a bigger, $1 billion stake at the time of Trump’s inauguration. Square shares have surged nearly 370% since then, compared to a 45% increase in the overall stock market. Dorsey’s Square stake is now worth $3.6 billion, enough to compose 80% of the tech tycoon’s fortune.
On January 20, 2017, the morning of his inauguration, Trump tweeted, “It all begins today!” Over the ensuing three years, the tweeter-in-chief acted as a one-man headline machine for the social media network, creating news by berating his critics, praising his acolytes and firing members of his cabinet—all on Twitter. The attention came with controversy. Throughout Trump’s term, users have called on Twitter to suspend his account. As recently as October, former Democratic presidential candidate and California Senator Kamala Harris wrote a letter to Dorsey asking him to suspend Trump’s account. The company has never acquiesced.
Dorsey has also grappled with how the platform handles issues like disinformation and harassment. But on Wall Street, investors were concerned with the fact that Twitter, which has struggled with user growth, turned its first annual profit in 2018. The company’s stock has made gains in the last three years, but those came on the back of a steep decline over the previous two years. Today Twitter trades at slightly below the price it did five years ago.
Stock pickers have been more consistently enthusiastic about Square. Founded in 2009, the company got its start with a focus on selling its payments-processing platform to small businesses. More recently, the company has started working with bigger businesses, which means more money for Square. Revenues of the company jumped 50% to $3.3 billion in 2018, pushing up the company’s shares—and therefore Dorsey’s fortune. When the annual Forbes 400 list came out in October 2018, Dorsey’s net worth had increased 186% from the previous year, more than anyone else in the ranking.
The stock has come down from its 2018 peak, but even skeptical analysts remain optimistic about the long-term prospects for the company. “You’re still looking at a company that’s growing at an incredibly fast rate,” says Morningstar analyst Brett Horn. “I think they’ve proven that the business model is viable, and they still have a lot of growth in front of them.”
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