Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban says he’s giving some real thought to challenging Donald Trump for the right to be our very rich Commander in Chief.
Cuban has been rumored to be interested in a presidential run, and he was very critical of Trump while he was on the election trail. But he supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election — after praising Trump and saying he did not care what the president’s policy positions were — and never threw his own hat in the ring for any sort of public office.
According to Cuban, however, he’s seriously considering a run for president in 2020. During an interview with New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook conference that he’s “honestly considering running” directly against Trump.
Cuban has indicated he’d consider running in the past, but for the first time, he’s giving details about his potential run. The Mavericks owner said he’d either run as an Independent or Republican, the latter so he can primary Trump. And Cuban said he thinks there’s a unique opportunity for someone like him to run for office in 2020.
“Given the circumstances, there’s a unique opportunity for someone, like me, who’s independent and not affiliated with party in any way,” Cuban said. “People are looking for a a real independent voice, if he at least knows an inkling of what we’re talking about.”
He hammered Trump’s personality and temperament, describing him as “a president who has no common sense and can’t get out of his own way.” The only battle Trump is winning, Cuban said, “is to become the least popular president is US history.”
Cuban did seem wary of the grind of a presidential campaign, asking rhetorically “what caring, loving parent would put three young children through the disaster?”
That word is a good one to describe a potential Trump/Cuban showdown. The two clearly do not like each other, and no fight with Trump occurs without things getting a bit dirty.
In fact, it didn’t take long for Cuban’s words on Thursday to get a response from the Trump family. Trump’s son, Don Jr., tweeted that Cuban’s potential presidential run was the billionaire’s way of “looking for attention,” which also got a response from Cuban on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/928701272353591296
If Cuban is serious about this and with the Trump re-election campaign already happening in earnest, it could be a very long next three years.
