The 10 richest people in the world saw their wealth increase by a record margin just one day after former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, a sign that already wide wealth disparities will likely grow even wider over the next four years due to Trump’s stated economic goals.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, those 10 individuals saw their wealth rise by up to $64 billion on Wednesday. That’s the highest daily increase among the 10 wealthiest people in the world ever seen in a single day since Bloomberg started tracking those people’s worth in 2012.
For comparison, the $64 billion figure is equivalent to the annual wages earned by 800,000 American households making the U.S. median income of $80,000 per year.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person (and someone who Trump suggested could play a significant role in his administration), saw the biggest increase in riches , receiving $26.5 billion the day after the election. Other tech business leaders, like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and others, also saw huge gains in their wealth.
Much of the increase was due to a surge in the U.S. stock market after Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, a sign that investors expect his low-tax and deregulation policies to be quickly implemented when he enters office.
The stock market, of course, is not a proper indicator of how well the economy is doing, especially for the half of all households in the U.S. whose members do not own any stock, including 401K retirement plans, and are therefore not impacted by positive performances on Wall Street the same way the ultra-rich are.
Economists who understand that the gains by the top 10 wealthiest individuals on the planet do not translate well to the rest of the world were quick to point out that the widening of economic disparities were soon to become a regular feature of the incoming Trump administration.
“Make no mistake: the ultra-wealthy and Wall Street will make out like bandits during the second Trump term,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said on the social media site X.
“Everyone else will be left behind.”
University of Wisconsin sociology professor Jessica Calarco said it will be important to keep an eye on wealth disparities and how the Trump economy will largely benefit the uber wealthy.
“As we try to deduce how we got here, we shouldn’t forget the billionaires who’ve spent decades promoting myths to delude us into accepting inequality and to keep us divided by race, class, gender, religion & politics so we don’t challenge their power,” Calarco wrote on X.
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