Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich reveals in a new book that Donald Trump thought running for president would cost about as much as a yacht and be “a lot more fun.”

Gingrich, a Trump ally and confidant, said he met with Trump in January 2015 and they talked about how much a presidential race would cost — with competitive estimates running to as much as $80 million.

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“His response was priceless,” Gingrich writes in “Understanding Trump, ” in an excerpt published by ABC News on Sunday. “After a moment of thought, he said, ‘$70 [million] to 80 million: that would be a yacht. This would be a lot more fun than a yacht!’ ”

He also noted how Trump ran his campaign like a corporation — “ahead of schedule and under budget.”

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Describing a phone conversation he had with Trump after the South Carolina primary in February 2016, Gingrich said the presidential candidate said he was indeed under budget. “At the tail end of our conversation, he jokingly said, ‘By the way, I know you said I needed to spend $80 million, but I’ve only spent $30 million. I feel kind of bad,’ ” Gingrich quoted Trump, who won the South Carolina primary, as having said.

But running for president and being the chief executive are two different things.

In an interview with Reuters in April — shortly before his first 100 days in office — Trump talked about how the rigors of the White House were affecting him. “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump reportedly told the news service . “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

This report previously appeared at NYPost.com.

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