Tales from the Trail

By George, Romney would not be the richest U.S. president

Patricia Zengerle

Jan 18, 2012 16:08 EST

A furor over his refusal to release his tax records has focused renewed attention on Mitt Romney’s vast personal fortune, which puts him in the top tier of wealthy Americans.

But Romney would not be the richest president in U.S. history if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee and defeats President Barack Obama (net worth: $5 million) in November. He’d be the second richest. And to find a wealthier one, in the long line of the mostly well-to-do men who have held the country’s highest office, you’d have to go way back. Way, way back, in fact — all the way to 1789, when George Washington became the first president.

The former private equity executive Romney is worth an estimated $250 million to $270 million, but his pile pales besides that of the father of his country, whose holdings are estimated at $525 million in today’s dollars. 

According to 247wallst.com, which analyzed the finances of all the presidents, Washington owned “Mount Vernon,” his Virginia plantation of five separate farms on 8,000 acres of prime farmland, and more than 300 slaves. He also made far more money than later presidents, with a salary set at 2 percent of the country’s budget.

Romney’s exact worth is not known because he has not released his tax returns, but if the $250 million to $270 million estimate were to hold true, he would come in second, behind Washington and just ahead of another Virginia slave owner, Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president. Jefferson ended his life deep in debt, but as president he owned Monticello, his 5,000-acre Virginia plantation, and dozens of slaves. He also made “significant money” in a variety of political positions before becoming president.

Forbes also puts Washington in first place, although it does not put Jefferson at number two. The magazine’s pick for the second spot is Herbert Hoover, who took office in 1929, just in time for the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Hoover, Forbes noted in 2011, was earning $2.5 million a year — adjusted for inflation — nearly 20 years before he became president.

The First Draft: Teddy’s Life of Remorse and Atonement

Oswald was the lone assassin. JFK wanted a way out of Vietnam. And Bobby’s death brought a bout of self-destructive drinking around the time Mary Jo Kopechne died at Chappaquiddick Island in an “inexcusable” car accident.

Those are some of the insights in a forthcoming memoir by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died last week but lives again in print as a leading figure in American politics.

In the book, “True Compass,” which Teddy completed while suffering from the brain cancer that claimed his life, he admits “terrible decisions” at Chappaquiddick in 1969 and says those events may have shortened the life of his father, Joe.

Teddy hardly knew Kopechne, who had been a young aide to Bobby, and was not romantically involved with her.

But after driving off a Chappaquiddick bridge with her as a passenger, he was dazed, afraid and panicked. He left the scene and didn’t report the accident until her body was discovered inside the car a day later.

The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy of the memoir, says Chappaquiddick occurred at a time when Teddy regretfully recalls “self-destructive” drinking in the aftermath of Bobby’s 1968 assassination.

“Some people make mistakes and try to learn from them and do better. Our sins don’t define the whole picture of who we are,” he wrote.