Guests Worth $120 Billion Sup With Trump at First State Dinner

(Bloomberg) -- Eight of the world’s wealthiest people attended President Donald Trump’s first state dinner last night along with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

Five of them -- LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman, leveraged-buyout tycoon Henry Kravis and Federal Express founder Fred Smith -- have a combined net worth exceeding $114 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Other billionaires present were Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein, cosmetics heir Ron Lauder and Trump himself, all with fortunes below the $4 billion cutoff for the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

The Trump administration has been good to his guests. Since his election in November 2016, the fortunes of the five wealthiest have surged almost 70 percent, more than triple the gains of the S&P 500 Index.

--With assistance from Katya Kazakina

To contact the reporters on this story: Devon Pendleton in London at dpendleton@bloomberg.net, Jack Witzig in Princeton at jwitzig@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum

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