The Times noted that any potential settlement could have to be approved by the very people he has appointed to head the Justice Department during his second term.

One of them, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, previously represented Trump as a defense attorney in criminal cases against the president.

“My guess is that they probably owe me a lot of money,” Trump said at the White House later Tuesday, addressing their demands.

“As for all the litigation… yes, they probably owe me a lot of money, but if I get money from our country, I’m going to do something good with it,” Trump said Tuesday, suggesting he would donate any settlement to the White House.

The Times says that when Trump was no longer in office, he filed complaints during the Joe Biden administration through an administrative claims process that is often a prelude to lawsuits:

Trump reopened the matter during an Oval Office appearance last week, with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, while speaking about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

“I have a lawsuit that was going very well. And when I became president, I said, 'I'm suing myself,'” Trump said.

“How do you settle the lawsuit? I say, 'Give me X dollars,' right? And I don't know what to do with the lawsuit; it's a big lawsuit. And now I won. It looks a little bad; I'm suing myself, right? So I don't know. But that was a very strong lawsuit, very strong lawsuit,” Trump said.