If nothing else, Donald Trump has always been consistent about one thing: insisting that he is greatly, massively, yugely wealthy. And while it remains difficult to determine the exact size of the Republican front-runner’s fortune, you can rest assured that he won’t be augmenting it with taxpayer dollars. On Monday afternoon, Trump provided videotaped responses to questions posed by Twitter users, including one about whether he’d accept the $400,000 presidential salary should he somehow find himself in a position to be offered it.
“I’m totally self-funding my campaign. I won’t take money other than the small stuff because people are invested, and I like that when they invest in the campaign. But I don’t take the big dollars,” said Trump. “As far as the salary is concerned, I won’t take even $1. I am totally giving up my salary if I become president.”
Just for some context, Trump frenemy Michael Bloomberg did take $1 for each year he ran New York City (though he reportedly never cashed his paychecks), while Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney refused the respective gubernatorial salaries of California and Massachusetts, respectively. Romney’s decision to go without wages was particularly noble because, as Trump has pointed out, Romney is not rich.
