By Theodore Schleifer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Longtime TV talk show star David Letterman, now in retirement, has no regrets about playing host to then-businessman and reality TV boss Donald Trump time and time again over the years.

"I'm disappointed that this man is representing me and my country. It makes me sick," he told GQ magazine in an interview published Monday. "But we always looked forward to having him on. He was a great guest. He was just a big, wealthy dope who'd come on and we would make fun of his hair."

Trump, of course, continues to drive a lot of late-night television jokes, including a slew of them by Letterman's "Late Show" successor Stephen Colbert, who recently celebrated being called "a no-talent guy" by the President.

"He's demonstrated himself to be a man without a core, a man without a soul," Letterman said of the President. "Is there a guy in there?"

Letterman has previously said late-night hosts have an "obligation" to take on Trump because comedy is "one of the ways that we can protect ourselves."

Letterman himself will head to the nation's capital later this year when he is honored with the 2017 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center.

CNN's Frank Pallotta contributed reporting.