Execs weighed ‘presidential premium’ to boost Donald Trump’s net worth

The Trump Organization’s top brass weighed padding Donald Trump’s net worth with a “presidential premium” while he was in office, according to testimony that closed out the second week of a fraud trial.

Trump Org assistant vice president Patrick Birney took the witness stand in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday morning in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million civil fraud case against Trump, 77.

Birney — who began his testimony Thursday afternoon — said company executives contemplated adding between 15% and 35% to the worth of Trump properties on the premise that people would value them more highly when Trump was the sitting president, ABC News reported.

This was reflected on draft versions of a 2017 annual Statement of Financial Condition in which leadership wanted to add as much as $144 million to Trump’s assets for a “premium for presidential property,” Birney said.

This included boosting the valuation of Mar-a-Lago, which was described on the form as the “presidential winter residence,” according to records shown in court.

The real estate company was looking for ways to make up for a $200 million drop in Trump’s net worth from 2016 to 2017 after a Forbes article revealed that the Trump Tower triplex had been drastically overvalued.

The “premium,” however, didn’t make it into the final draft of the 2017 financial document.

AG lawyer Eric Haren asked Birney — who helped prep these yearly statements from 2016 through 2021 — “who directed” him to add the “premium.”

“I don’t really remember, but probably Allen Weisselberg,” Birney said of the longtime company CFO.

James claims Trump lied on his Statements of Financial Condition from 2011 through 2021 in order to get better loan and insurance terms and to climb Forbes’ list of billionaires.

Birney was the only witness on the half-day of trial Friday and is set to resume testimony Monday morning.

Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen is listed as the next witness to be called after Birney and is likely to take the witness stand early next week.

The former commander-in-chief — who attended the first three days of the trial last week — may show up again in the Lower Manhattan courthouse to face Cohen, a source told The Post.

Cohen is expected to be a key witness in the AG’s case — which Trump’s side has criticized, since Cohen is a convicted felon and alleged liar.