President Donald Trump also expressed a willingness to attend next year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. | AP Photo Trump: I thought presidency would be 'easier' than 'previous life'

President Donald Trump said Thursday he expected the presidency to be "easier" than his "previous life" as a real estate mogul.

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," the president told Reuters in a wide-ranging Oval Office interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."


The president also expressed a willingness to attend next year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, after breaking with decades of precedent in February by publicly rejecting an invitation to attend this year's gala.

"I would come next year, absolutely," he said of the event.

The 2017 White House Correspodents' Dinner will take place April 29 without Trump and the White House staff, who will not attend in support of the president's decision.

Trump, who spent years in the public limelight as a billionaire real estate magnate and reality television star, also lamented the lack of privacy in his new life as the country's most prominent public servant.

"You're really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can't go anywhere," he said.

Trump added: "I like to drive. I can't drive any more."