Donald Trump would not support an increase in the U.S. minimum wage if he were to move into the White House in 2017, the Republican presidential frontrunner told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday.

"It's such a nasty question because the answer has to be nasty," the candidate noted, according to Mediaite. "We can't have a situation where our labor is so much more expensive than other countries that we can no longer compete."

Trump, whose net worth is estimated at $4 billion, argued that his promise to "make America great again" would eventually render the debate about the minimum wage superfluous.

"I want to create jobs so you don't have to worry about the minimum wage, they're making much more than the minimum wage. But I think having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country," he said. "We're in a global economy now. it used to be companies would leave New York state or leave another state and go to Florida, go to Texas, go to wherever they go because or lower wages."

The Republican presidential frontrunner's comments contrast sharply with the views of his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, who last month voiced support to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour, from the current benchmark of $7.25, the Huffington Post noted.

"I think it's going to be important that we set a national minimum, but then we get out of the way of cities and states that believe that they can and should go higher," the former secretary noted as New York and Washington moved to raise their benchmarks to $15 an hour, according to the Business Insider.

Trump and Clinton seem to more closely align on the issue of equal pay for women, though the businessman said it was hard to tell if male and female employees were doing the same work. "If they do the same job, they should get the same pay. But it's very hard to say what is the same job," Trump warned.