Yeah it's all smoke and mirrors. It's all valuations.
The issue though is that he can borrow against that. That's the real scam, and it's something we need to address. Loans backed by assets like stocks should get taxed as if it were a short term sale of the assets. Also cap how much stock you can use as collateral for loans. Or just ban using stocks as collateral in the first place. They want to spend? They need to sell, pay the taxes, and weigh the loss in voting power against their need for money