Former US President Donald Trump laid out one of his biggest whoppers yet outside his civil fraud trial in New York City on Tuesday.
Now he’s falsely claiming that his Mar-A-Lago estate is “the most expensive house probably in the world.”
Trump made the bogus claim outside the New York City courtroom where he and his company are currently on trial for allegedly massively overvaluing his assets and net worth to deceive banks, insurers and others that financed his projects.
Outside the courtroom, Trump accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of “ranting and raving like a lunatic” and claimed that she “defrauded the public with this trial.”
But he saved his biggest grievance over the perceived value of his Mar-A-Lago property, which has come under scrutiny during the trial.
Trump has previously claimed the Florida mansion is worth at least $420 million (£344 million) and perhaps $1.5 billion (£1.23 billion), but Judge Arthur Engoron, who presides over the case, noted the Palm Beach County tax appraiser gave a valuation ranging between $18 million to $37 million (£14.75 million to £30 million).
On Tuesday, Trump claimed James and Engoron are “the frauds” because “the house is worth a billion, a billion-and-a-half, $750 million (£614 million)?”
He griped further: “It’s worth a fortune! It’s the most expensive house probably in the world, and they said it was worth $18 million.”
You can see the segment below.
Palm Beach real estate experts scoff at the $18 million evaluation and said if Trump sold Mar-A-Lago, it could net at least $300 million and possibly as much as $600 million, according to The Associated Press.
A billion-dollar sale is possible if “uber-billionaires got into a bidding war,” the AP noted.
Although Mar-A-Lago is obviously valuable real estate, there is currently no truth to Trump’s statement that it’s the most valuable home in the world.
That honor goes to Buckingham Palace, which has been valued at $1.6 billion, (£1.3 billion) according to Travel And Leisure Asia.
But HuffPost politics reporter SV Date noted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Mar-A-Lago is not even supposed to be a home.
“It’s a swimming and croquet club where ‘no one’ is supposed to live, not even him. Except the Palm Beach council was too afraid/tired to deal with him violating his agreement with the town,” Date said.
Of course, Trump’s bogus claim attracted a lot of social media comments, including attorney and writer Elie Mystal, who noted that “the fact that Trump’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago has gone up by, like, 50 percent, OVER THE COURSE OF THE TRIAL... kind of speaks to why he’s being tried in the first place.”
Others had their own snarky comments.