Trump Says Being President Cost Him ‘$2 to $5 Billion’

President Donald Trump at a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 20, 2019. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Over the past three years, being the country’s commander-in-chief cost President Donald Trump between $2 billion and $5 billion in lost earnings, he said on Monday.

“It’s cost me anywhere from $2 [billion] to $5 billion to be president … between what I lose and what I could have made,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House.

“I would’ve made a fortune if I just ran my business—I was doing it really well,” he said, according to Fox Business.

However, Trump said he doesn’t regret it.

“If I had it to do it again I would do it in an instant, because who cares, if you can afford it, what difference does it make?” he told reporters, according to Reuters.

President Donald Trump speaks to media before departing the White House on Marine One on Oct. 11, 2019. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Trump ran a series of resorts bearing his namesake around the world before he became president. His children have taken over the family business.

“Whether I lost $2 billion, $5 billion or less, it doesn’t make any difference. I don’t care,” Trump told reporters. “I’m doing this for the country. I’m doing it for the people.”

In the meeting, Trump also discussed looking at different locations for next year’s G-7 summit after he went back on a decision to host the event at his Doral resort near Miami.

“I don’t think it’ll be as exciting, I don’t think it’ll be as good,” Trump said of the potential new location. “It’ll cost the country a fortune because it’s very expensive. … I was willing to do it for free but people didn’t like that. They thought I may get some promotional value,” as reported by Fox Business.

He pilloried the media on Monday over the move.

“Doral in Miami would have been the best place to hold the G-7, and free, but too much heat from the Do Nothing Radical Left Democrats & their Partner, the Fake News Media!” he wrote in a tweet.

The G-7 is slated to include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, and Italy. It was formerly known as G-8 until Russia was booted out in 2014 over its incursion into the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine.