Yes, we know. Donald Trump is a billionaire white guy, and so is mercurial Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. For most, that should be plenty for at least a congenial relationship. But after Cuban called Trump a “paper tiger” a couple of weeks ago, the seeds of discord between the filthy wealthy were sown.
Except, that’s not what happened. If anything, there’s now a mutual respect veering toward a possible friendship. So, how the hell did this happen? Eli Langer of CNBC relayed some rather complimentary remarks Cuban wrote about Trump on that ubiquitous Cyber Dust account. It seems Donald’s brain farts are actually endearing to Cuban, who is tired of the scripted nature of politics.
After writing that Trump was “probably the best thing to happen to politics in a long, long time,” Cuban’s gushing continued, as transcribed by Langer:
“I don’t care what his actual positions are,” Cuban wrote. “I don’t care if he says the wrong thing. He says what’s on his mind. He gives honest answers rather than prepared answers. This is more important than anything any candidate has done in years.”
[…]
“Up until Trump announced his candidacy, the conventional wisdom was that you had to be a professional politician in order to run,” Cuban wrote. “You had to have a background that was politically scrubbed. In other words, smart people who didn’t live perfect lives could never run. Smart people who didn’t want their familiar put under the media spotlight wouldn’t run.”
Even last week, Cuban was already wading into the legislative waters, opining about how tired he was of political correctness on Colin Cowherd’s now defunct ESPN show.
So, here’s what Cuban told ESPN radio about Trump last week:
“I think people are tired of politics as usual. We’re tired of everything being scripted, we’re tired of every comment being politically correct. And, you know, even though Donald has to spend a lot of time pulling not just his foot but the toenails and the stuff that falls off his cuticles out of his mouth, at least it’s refreshing to have somebody who is just gonna say what’s on their mind and give an honest, if not insensitive, response to a question. To me, it’s great.”
In response to Cuban’s effusive remarks the last couple weeks, Trump tweeted that he’s rapidly becoming a Dallas Mavericks fan:
Thank you @mcuban for your nice words. I am rapidly becoming a @dallasmavs fan!
https://t.co/sLXkCh9qfg— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2015
Cuban is pretty popular, and his off-the-cuff comments sometimes really work. But he’s also a guy who once said, “I like Donald [Sterling]. He plays by his own rules,” and that was after federal prosecutors had accused Sterling of housing discrimination.
Cuban and Trump deserve each other. But the American constituency deserves better, even if they don’t know it yet.
(Via CNBC, ESPN Radio, @realDonaldTrump)
