As Elon Musk steps up his work on behalf of former President Donald Trump, Kamala Harris is tapping her own billionaire, Mark Cuban, to reprise the role he played for Hillary Clinton in 2016, making a series of high-profile appearances alongside the vice president. and her husband this week.
Cuban appeared with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday and is scheduled to hold a town hall for her on Saturday in Phoenix before heading to Michigan the next day to campaign alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“This election is a battle for business owners,” Cuban said in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday, before warning that Trump’s trade and tariff policies will drive up prices, ruin Christmas by making gifts more expensive and “crush dreams.” ” of business owners by making their costs unsustainable.
“Donald Trump is the Grinch who wants to steal your Christmas,” he stressed. “The Grinch doesn’t understand how tariffs work…The Grinch is the one who is going to put these small companies out of business.”
The “Shark Tank” star, who did not respond to a request for comment, brings business credibility, tech-savvy pop culture appeal and a nonconformist personality that is considered especially attractive to young men, who have become one of the most contested demographic groups in an election in which the gender gap has grown to historic proportions.
Harris, whose campaign tied Cuban’s tour to her commitment to male voters, has recently appeared on shows including “All The Smoke” and “The Breakfast Club” with Charlamagne Tha God. The campaign has also run ads on platforms with predominantly male audiences, such as gaming site IGN, major sporting events and sports radio.
Although Cuban has downplayed the need for Harris to speak to men, he could be critical to those efforts and has already defended Harris semi-officially in podcasts and media interviews.
He has also been an emissary in the business world, helping found a group called Venture Capitalists for Kamala, which now has nearly 900 signatories, as well as Business Leaders for Harris.
Cuban’s effort comes at a time when Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and one of the richest men in the world, has been appearing alongside Trump, a billionaire, and is now holding a series of “conversations.” with voters in Pennsylvania on the sidelines of the campaign.
The town only has an abandoned strip club and an unoccupied mobile home park.
Unlike Musk, who has donated nearly $75 million and counting to Trump-aligned groups, Cuban is not a political donor. Federal Election Commission records show a single $1,000 donation to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., in 2002 under Cuban’s name.
But Harris allies say Cuban’s voice and personality are more valuable than his money.
For example, a new poll from Equis Research, which focuses on Latino voters, found that Cuban was the most popular figure analyzed among Hispanic men under 50, with a net favorability rating 15 percentage points higher than Musk’s.
Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, praised Cuban’s “talents” and said he has credibility in reaching voters on economic and business issues. “His many followers, including Shark Tank fans and aspiring entrepreneurs across Wisconsin, know he means business and speaks his mind,” Wikler said.
“YOU SHOULD NOT TRUST TRUMP”: CUBAN
Cuban has warned Musk not to trust Trump.
“[Trump] It will burn everything it touches. He doesn’t care,” Cuban told NBC News host Chuck Todd. “I told Elon, ‘There’s going to come a time when you’re going to need something from Donald Trump and he’s going to disappoint you. I guarantee it.’”
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The 6-foot-10 former NBA team owner (he recently sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks but retains a smaller portion of the team) is comfortable and confident on platforms that appeal to men but are often avoided by other Democrats. , like “All-In,” the podcast popular among Silicon Valley anti-woke types.
In a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von’s hugely popular podcast, Cuban dropped F-bombs, joked about disgraced hip hop mogul “Diddy” Combs, and stabbed Trump with a smile at a host who is a fan of the president and loathes him. had as a guest a few weeks before.
“I like the guy, if he was here and we were just talking shit, I’d get along really well with him. But that’s different than wanting him to be president of the United States again,” Cuban told Von. “I think you need someone you can trust. Is Kamala perfect? No. Do I agree with everything you are going to do or say or do? No. But I trust her.”
However, none of this is uncharted territory for Cuban, who played a similar role in 2016 for Clinton’s ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Trump.
That year, Democrats were thrilled to see Cuban mock and insult his fellow billionaire-turned-reality-TV star in ways Clinton herself would never dream of doing in public, questioning whether Trump was really a billionaire and saying he was unfit. for the position.
“I have at least twice as much money as him,” Cuban said on Stephen Colbert’s show, before making a series of insulting comedy jokes about the size of Trump’s hands, his multiple bankruptcies and his “bright orange” appearance. ”.
“Donald, the only way you’re worth $10 billion is if I pay you $9.5 billion to wash my balls!” Cuban said as the audience applauded like supporting actors in the “You Got Served” film franchise.
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Democrats loved that Cuban seemed to be able to get under Trump’s skin. Clinton invited him to sit in the front row of one of her debates with Trump.
“If silly Mark Cuban, of failed Benefactor fame, wants to sit in the front row, maybe put Gennifer Flowers next to him!” Trump tweeted before the debate, referencing a woman who claimed to have had an affair with Bill Clinton before his 1992 presidential campaign.
Before that campaign, Trump and Cuban had an on-again, off-again relationship. In 2014, Trump tweeted that he had “far more wealth and athletic ability” than Cuban. In another tweet that year, he called Cuban “a moron” and said that “Major League Baseball was really smart when they didn’t let Mark Cuban buy a team.”
Cuban has toyed with the idea of running for president himself — Trump tweeted in 2017 that Cuban “isn’t smart enough to run for president” — although last year Cuban ruled out the idea of running in 2024.
WOULD CUBAN ACCEPT PUBLIC OFFICE?
Still, not all Democrats are thrilled to see party leaders bring a billionaire onto the campaign trail.
After all, Cuban has his own agenda and some on the left wonder what he might want from a potential Harris White House.
“Mark Cuban is a gifted communicator, and I understand why having a billionaire reality show star take on Donald Trump has appeal for the campaign. But billionaire tech brothers often have a lot in common,” said Jeff Hauser, founder of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive group focused on staff appointments to key economic policy positions.
The Democratic nominee has been criticized by those who say she is avoiding the strong questions that the electorate has
Cuban has called for the ouster of the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission over his approach to cryptocurrency regulation and has said he would be interested in the position for himself.
“Head of the SEC, head of the SEC, that’s the job I would take,” he said last month when a Fox News host asked him if he would consider taking a job in a Harris administration. He added that he would “maybe” consider running the Department of Health and Human Services as well.
He has also called for the ouster of Lina Khan, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission and a progressive favorite, prompting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to declare there would be “an all-out fight” if “the billionaires [que] “They have been trying to flirt” with Harris and push for his impeachment.
“Harris’s paid ads reflect a populist bent on the economy, but it’s troubling that Cuban can instead elevate plutocratic goals within a Harris administration at odds with her ads by dint of personal charisma.”
This article was originally published in English on NBC News. click here to read it.
