Mt. Lebanon native Mark Cuban is certainly uncertain about running for president
Mark Cuban, billionaire “Shark Tank” star, Dallas Mavericks owner and Mt. Lebanon native, said he is considering a run for president in 2020 … maybe.
In an long interview with the New York Daily News after his Mavs took on the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night, he spoke about the possibility of running for the nation’s top office as a third-party candidate, saying he would neither need nor want a party affiliation.
But he remained strongly non-committal about a possible presidential run.
“I haven’t decided anything yet. We’ll see what happens. It all comes down to how things play out,” Cuban said. “It’s not something I feel like I have to do.”
He continued, “But it’s something that if circumstances were right I would do.”
In the interview he spoke on several political topics, some of the highlights include:
On the Democrats: He said that the candidates lining up to take on President Trump face the difficulty of showing themselves as leaders for the whole country, while still getting through the primary.
On the economy: He believes economic solutions are the way to address the hardships many Americans are feeling. “You have to show people how they can have an upside and how problems are solvable, but you can’t just say ‘the government will figure it out.’ You’ve got to get right to the heart of the matter and get to the details first. Sort of like a business plan. That way every voter can see them.”
On President Trump: About the current White House resident, Cuban said, “People weren’t voting for (Trump in 2016) because he was calling people names, they were voting for him because he was not a politician, and he was demonstrating to everyone that he wasn’t a politician.
And his one message to all Americans: “Rich people are stupid.”
He doubled down on his non-committal Tuesday morning, telling Fox News that, “I said I’m not ruling it out. But the tea leaves would have to align perfectly.”
Frank Carnevale is the TribLive multimedia editor. He started at the Trib in 2016 and has been part of several news organizations, including the Providence Journal and Orlando Sentinel. He can be reached at fcarnevale@triblive.com.
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