Billionaire and Republican candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that he would spend $1 billion on his presidential campaign, if necessary, to win the White House.
Asked by a reporter at the Iowa State Fair if he would spend that sum on his campaign, Trump replied “Yes … if I had to.”
Trump afterward ended the short press conference to take children at the fair aboard his helicopter.
The brash candidate, who leads Republicans in recent polls, said that a budget for his campaign was “irrelevant.”
“I make 400 million a year so what difference does it make,” Trump said.
Instead of worrying about the cost of the campaign, he added, “my whole focus will be this country and making it great again.”
Trump has advertised his personal fortune to voters, saying that it places him beyond the influence of other billionaires seeking to advance special interests.
While he has repeatedly claimed a net worth of more than $10 billion, it is unclear what his true wealth is. Bloomberg News estimated his wealth at $2.9 billion, based on campaign disclosures.
If Trump were to advance beyond the Republican primary, it would likely take over a billion dollars to compete for the presidency. Both Mitt Romney and President Obama spent more than $1 billion in their campaigns in 2012.
