Trump Asserts New Deals Have Him Laughing All the Way to ‘Poorhouse’

NEW YORK — Developer Donald Trump says he’s making a killing now that people think he has no money.

“It’s good for me to be thought of as poor right now,” he said in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine. “You wouldn’t believe some of the deals I’m making. I guess I have a perverse personality. . . . I’ve really enjoyed the last few weeks.”

Trump says he is not upset at being dropped from Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest men and blames it on a run-in he had with the magazine’s late owner, Malcolm Forbes. The magazine, which last put Trump’s net worth at $1.7 billion, lowered that estimate to $500 million in April.

“(I’ve) been expecting this attack from Forbes,” he said. “You know why? Malcolm Forbes got thrown out of the Plaza by me! . . . You’ll read about it in my new book. And I didn’t throw him out because he didn’t pay his bill.”