How Much Money Will Trump Earn During the Presidential Debates?

The Trump debate money figure of $244,000 is based on Trump’s average annual earnings. It’s also 32 times what Hillary Clinton will make during the same amount of time. Donald Trump earns $476.5 million each year. The presidential debates will take roughly 4.5 hours. In that amount of time, the Republican candidate earns nearly a quarter million dollars. By contrast, Hillary Clinton earns an average of $7,700 in a four and a half hour period. The Clinton debate money figure comes from her average annual pay of $15 million.

Trump Debate Money is 32 Times More than Clinton’s

Based on a recent analysis of each candidate’s personal financial disclosure forms, the Trump debate money number is 32 times Hillary Clinton’s earnings. Trump earns $476.5 million per year. That’s $1.3 million per day or $54,395 per hour, even when he’s sleeping or eating a sandwich. Put that up against Clinton’s $15 million per year based on a similar analysis. At that rate, Hillary Clinton earns about $41,000 per day or $1,712 per hour. Mrs. Clinton may have been dead broke when her husband Bill left the White House in 2001, but that situation has changed drastically. During the 4.5 hours of the presidential debates in September and October, Clinton will earn $7,705. That would be a lot of money to most Americans but it’s a bag of shells to Trump. The real estate mogul will earn $244,777 in the same amount of time.

Clinton and Trump Debate Money
DateTimeDuration (Minutes)
September 267:00 PM90
October 97:00 PM90
October 197:00 PM90
Total Time (hrs)6
Hillary Clinton Pay Per Hour$1,712
Donald Trump Pay Per Hour$54,395
Clinton Debate Money Made$10,274
Trump Debate Money Made$326,370

Related: Donald Trump Net Worth

How Accurate Are Our Clinton and Trump Debate Money Figures

The Clinton and Trump debate money numbers shown above are a good guideline. They illustrate the earnings difference between Trump and Clinton pretty well in broad strokes. However the truth is that nobody really knows how much money Trump will earn during the debates except Donald Trump. The same goes for Hillary Clinton. In the first place, neither candidate will actually be paid to engage in debating the other. In the second, the Clinton debate money figure is based on an estimate of how much the candidate makes in an average year. Much of that average comes from Mrs. Clinton’s speaking fee earnings, which she’s not currently earning. Likewise, the amount of money Trump will earn during the debates is based on the wide range of numbers in his personal disclosure forms.

Trump Debate Money

Trump’s Earnings Could Be a Lot More… Or a Lot Less

The trouble with our current system for reporting the net worth and earnings of a presidential candidate is scale. When the laws were written, nobody expected a billionaire candidate. As such, many of Trump’s assets are so large in value that they only have to be reported as “over $50 million.” Trump’s earnings suffer from the same type of documentation flaw. The actual Trump debate money figure could be as high as $500,000 or as low as $100,000. That said, Trump’s business empire runs whether he’s on stage or not, so he really is making money during the debates. Clinton meanwhile isn’t earning at the same level these days, so her on-stage earnings clock won’t be ticking over at quite the same rate. The one thing we do know for certain is that neither candidate is going to spend much of their time during the debates worrying about how to pay the light bill.

Related: Hillary Clinton Net Worth