Trump Slams ‘Phony Emoluments Clause’ over Scrapped G-7 Plans

EXCERPT:

TRUMP: "I actually put all the stuff in trusts. And I didn’t have to do that, but under no obligation to do it — I don’t know if you know it, George Washington, he ran is business simultaneously while he was president. Many other presidents — there weren’t too many rich presidents, but there were a few. They ran their business. Obama made a deal for a book. Is that running a business? I’m sure he didn’t even discuss it while he was president, yeah. He has a deal with Netflix. When did they start talking about that? That’s only a couple of examples. But other presidents, if you look, other presidents were wealthy. Not huge wealth. George Washington was actually considered a very, very rich man at the time. But they ran their businesses. George Washington, they say, had two desks. He had a presidential desk and a business desk. I don’t think you people with this phony emoluments clause — by the way, I would say it costs me anywhere from 2 to $5 billion to be president. And that's okay. Between what I lose and I could have made, I could have made a fortune if I just ran my business. I was doing it really well. I have a great business, I have the best properties. But between what I lose, and in all fairness, some properties, Doral is an example, Doral was setting records when I bought it, because I owned it for a period of time, setting records. There was nothing like it. It was making a fortune. And then what happened? I announce I’m going to run for office, right? And I say, 'We got to build a wall, we have to have borders, we have to have this and that,' and all of a sudden some people didn’t like it. They thought the rhetoric was too tough.”