Donald Trump announced how much he wants to be paid per year as President of the United States–and the businessman is raising some eyebrows.
While President Barack Obama receives a salary of $400,000 per year–in addition to a number of expenses covered by the federal taxpayer, like the use of Air Force One and the White House–Trump said, in a recent Q&A interview posted on Twitter, that he wouldn’t take anything.
“I won’t take even one dollar. I’m totally giving up my salary if I become president,” he said.
The billionaire businessman has an estimated net worth of somewhere between $2.7 billion at $10 billion–depending on the source. Simply put, he doesn’t need a comparatively small salary from the federal government to do the job.
This reiterates the point Trump made during last week’s presidential debate, when he said he would also not take social security:
“I know people that, frankly, [social security] has no impact on their life whatsoever,” he said. “There are many people — I would almost say leave it up to them, but I would be willing to check it off, and say I will not get Social Security.”
While the salary of the President or one person’s social security payments are hardly a large expense considering the outlays of the federal government–which number in the trillions–it’s refreshing to know Donald Trump is willing to put his money where his mouth is, and refuse to take money from the federal government that he doesn’t need.
