DeSantis Filing Shows Income Boom But Wealth Lags Behind Trump
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2023-08-01 07:20
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had a big boost to his assets and income in recent years, his financial

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had a big boost to his assets and income in recent years, his financial disclosure shows, but still falls far short of the wealth held by his main rival for the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis’s filing listed his gubernatorial salary, a book contract and an associated marketing agreement as his sources of income, totaling between $1.2 million and $7 million.

Candidates disclose income amounts and the value of assets in broad ranges in filings to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC released the document, which was due on Friday, after DeSantis was granted a 45-day extension.

A separate disclosure DeSantis filed with the state of Florida on June 30 listed his net worth to be $1.2 million, up from $318,987 the year before.

Much of the increase in DeSantis’ wealth came from his book, The Courage to Be Free. HarperCollins paid DeSantis $1.3 million for the memoir in which he touts his experience as Florida’s governor. He also had a marketing agreement with Premiere Book Group to promote the book that paid him at least $100,000.

DeSantis was still carrying up to $15,000 in student debt incurred in 2005, the filing shows, with a 1.625% interest rate and a term of 25 years.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday found that 54% of likely GOP voters backed Trump, compared to 17% for DeSantis. Trump’s 37 percentage-point lead over DeSantis, who has consistently placed a distant second, is the largest in the survey so far.

Read more: Trump Widens Lead Over Flagging DeSantis Among Likely GOP Voters

On his seven-page federal filing, which covers all of 2022 and roughly the first six months of 2023, DeSantis lists an Interactive Brokers cash account worth between $1 million and $5 million, a new disclosure since he filed his Florida papers. He also had checking and savings accounts at USAA with at least $250,000 in deposits, and an investment in United States Oil Fund worth at least $15,000. His Florida Retirement System account had at least $50,000.

His disclosure isn’t nearly the length of Trump’s, whose most recent filing with the FEC stretched to 101 pages. In an amended filing released by the Office of Government Ethics earlier in July, Trump provided more details on his sprawling financial empire, including his crypto wallet, speaking fees and the income he received from the sale of his Washington hotel. He disclosed more than $1 billion in additional income as well.

Read more: Trump Details Income From NFTs, Hotel Sale in New Disclosure

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