Billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban showed he’s not afraid to throw punches at presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. Cuban tore into The Donald in an interview at the SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
“There’s that guy who’ll walk into the bar and say anything to get laid,” Cuban explained. “That’s Donald Trump right now to a T. But it’s all of us who are going to get f***ed.” These comments echo a previous Cuban declaration that Trump wants to “f*** the country.” The investor described his relationship with the real estate tycoon as “a love-hate relationship,” saying “we go way back.”
“Everybody’s got that friend that you just shake your head at,” Cuban added. “He’s that guy who’d get drunk and fall over all the time, or just says dumb s*** all the time, but he’s your friend.”
Trump is a notorious teetotaler, so these comments are entirely figurative. The Donald can be embarrassing, but he never drinks alcohol.
Cuban did not just attack Trump, however. He also gave advice to Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, on how to beat The Donald. “I would get a vice-presidential candidate who’s someone like me who would just throw bombs at Donald,” the investor suggested. “I would be like, ‘Donald, I like you. We’re friends, but you’re a goddamn airhead.'”
The investor was not offering himself as Clinton’s running mate, but he nevertheless criticized her likely competition. Of Trump’s appeal to new sectors of the electorate, he said, “Being empathetic is one thing, and that’s good.”
“But given the office he’s running for, trying to come up with a solution is even more important. And I don’t think he’s there yet.”
Nevertheless, Cuban remarked that he supports Trump. He has described The Donald’s candidacy as “the Seinfeld candidacy,” and said that it has been about nothing. “It was the Puffy Shirt, the Elaine Dance, the whatever,” the investor said, listing episodes of Seinfeld. “For Trump, it’s The Immigration episode, The Wall episode, The Jobs episode. His people don’t want to hear the details.”
In February, Cuban suggested he might run as Trump’s vice presidential candidate. Now, he’s suggesting how crazy it would be if Clinton tapped him as VP. “Forget Donald Trump asking me to be vice president or whatever,” the investor said. “Imagine if Hillary bought me in or brought somebody like me in and went more to the center and became more business friendly.”
Such a decision “could change the entire tenor of the race. I’m more curious to see what she does, because we already know Donald’s position.”
Then again, Silicon Valley venture investor Chris Sacca had a prophecy — that Cuban, not Clinton or Trump, would become president. Could the Dallas Mavericks owner run third party, or use a VP slot in 2016 as a launching pad for 2020 or 2024? Stranger things have happened.
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