Biden’s net worth is around $10 million not $41 million (2024)

Before he was vice president or president, Joe Biden was one of Congress’ least wealthy members. Now one critic says Biden’s net worth more than quadrupled since before he moved into the White House.

Actor James Woods shared an image on social media that said Biden’s net worth has increased from $9 million in 2019 to $41 million in 2022. Net worth is the value of people’s income and assets minus the debt and other liabilities they owe.

"I’m shocked," Woods, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, wrote Dec. 10 on X, formerly Twitter. The image Woods shared also questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ assets, but we focused on the Biden claim.

Financial disclosures, tax filings and news reports show that Biden’s net worth has grown slightly since entering the White House, but nothing on the scale Woods suggests.

Forbes in August wrote that Biden’s net worth was at $10 million, up from about $8 million when he entered the White House in 2020.

Featured Fact-check

Instagram posts

stated on May 27, 2024 in an Instagram post

Joe Biden told West Point graduates that “he is not planning to accept the results of the 2024 election” and he wants them to “stand back and stand by” to ensure Donald J. Trump doesn’t win.

"The increase has nothing to do with family business dealings in far-flung countries," Forbes wrote. "Instead, he is getting richer by doing what a lot of 80-year-old Americans are doing: sitting on real estate. The president owns two homes in Delaware that are worth an estimated $7 million combined, $1.8 million more than they were when he took office."

Much of the Bidens’ current net worth is from the combined value of their two Delaware homes, which include a six-bedroom mansion in Rehoboth Beach that they purchased in 2017, Forbes reported.

After leaving the vice presidency in 2017, Biden’s income increased substantially. In 2017 alone, Forbes found, Joe and Jill Biden brought in $11.1 million— nearly double their total earnings from 1998 to 2016. In 2018, they brought in another $4.6 million.

Speaking engagements and book deals drove much of that new wealth before 2020.

As president, Biden earns $400,000 a year. His 2022 financial disclosures, published by the White House in May, show he has assets between $1 million and $2.65 million. But these figures represented little change from 2021, his first full year as president.

We rate the claim that Biden’s net worth was $41 million in 2022 False.

• 

  

  Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

  stated on June 5, 2024 in News release:

  Republican legislatures “have targeted birth control” and in Wisconsin “refused to schedule a vote on a bill that would have codified a right to birth control.”

  

  

• 

  

  Social Media

  stated on June 10, 2024 in a post:

  Video shows Rep. Nancy Pelosi “takes responsibility for not having the National Guard” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  

  

• 

  

  Instagram posts

  stated on May 22, 2024 in an Instagram post:

  Fuddruckers is “closing ALL locations.”

  

  

• 

  

  Viral image

  stated on June 4, 2024 in an Instagram post:

  Photo shows “the Sandy Hook girls that did not die like they said they did!”

  

  

• 

  

  Instagram posts

  stated on June 10, 2024 in una publicación en Instagram:

  "La reapertura de la Catedral de Notre Dame en París, después del incendio de las torres. Espectacular!".

  

  

• 

  

  Donald Trump

  stated on May 31, 2024 in remarks to reporters:

  “Congo, Africa, just released a lot of people, a lot of people from their prisons and jails and brought them into the United States of America.”

  

  

• 

  

  Joe Biden

  stated on May 8, 2024 in a Biden for President campaign ad:

  If the Affordable Care Act were terminated, “that would mean over a hundred million Americans will lose protections for preexisting conditions.”

  

  

• 

  

  Facebook posts

  stated on June 9, 2024 in a Facebook post:

  Photo shows the scene of a fatal crash that killed a Filipino artist.

  

  

• 

  

  Facebook posts

  stated on June 5, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook:

  Don Francisco dice que un médico le habló sobre un remedio para la hipertensión “completamente natural que podría salvar a millones de personas si comenzaran a tomarlo”.

  

  

• 

  

  Marco Rubio

  stated on May 19, 2024 in an interview:

  The number of people in the U.S. illegally is “upwards of 20, 25, maybe 30 million.”