Harris deploys Mark Cuban as Elon Musk stumps for Trump

As Elon Musk steps up his work on behalf of former President Donald Trump, Kamala Harris is asking in her personal billionaire, Mark Cuban, to reprise the position he performed for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by holding a collection of high-profile appearances alongside the vp and her husband this week.

Cuban appeared with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday and is about to carry a city corridor for her Saturday in Phoenix earlier than heading to Michigan the next day to marketing campaign alongside Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

“This election is a battle for entrepreneurs,” Cuban mentioned in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday, earlier than warning that Trump’s trade and tariff policies will drive up costs, damage Christmas by making items dearer and “crush the desires” of entrepreneurs by making their prices unsustainable.

“Donald Trump is the Grinch that desires to steal your Christmas,” he mentioned. “The Grinch does not perceive how tariffs work… The Grinch is the one which’s going to be placing these small enterprise out of enterprise.”

The “Shark Tank” star, who didn’t reply to a request for remark, brings enterprise credibility, tech-savvy popular culture enchantment, and a maverick persona that’s seen as particularly interesting to younger males, who’ve turn into one of the crucial hotly contested demographics in an election that has seen the gender hole develop to historic proportions.  

Harris — whose marketing campaign linked Cuban’s tour to its engagement with male voters — has just lately appeared on reveals like “All The Smoke“, “The Breakfast Club” with Charlamagne Tha God. The marketing campaign has additionally run adverts on platforms with male-skewing audiences, such as gaming site IGN, major sporting events and sports talk radio.

Though Cuban has downplayed the need for Harris to target men, he might be integral to these efforts and has already been making the case for Harris in a semi-official capability in podcasts and media interviews.

He’s additionally been an emissary to the enterprise world, serving to discovered a bunch known as Venture Capitalists for Kamala, which now has virtually 900 signatories, as properly as Business Leaders for Harris.

Cuban’s effort comes as Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and one of many world’s richest males, has been showing alongside Trump, himself a billionaire, and is now holding a collection of “conversations” with voters in Pennsylvania separate from the marketing campaign.

Not like Musk, who has donated nearly $75 million and counting to Trump-aligned teams, Cuban just isn’t a political donor. Federal Election Fee data present a single, $1,000 donation to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., in 2002 underneath Cuban’s identify. 

However Harris allies say Cuban’s voice and persona is extra precious than his cash.

As an example, a brand new survey from Equis Analysis, which focuses on Latino voters, discovered Cuban to be the preferred determine it examined amongst Hispanic males underneath 50, with a internet favorability score 15 proportion factors greater than Musk’s.

Ben Wikler, Wisconsin’s Democratic Occasion Chair, praised Cuban’s “abilities” and mentioned he has credibility to succeed in voters on enterprise and financial points. “His many followers — together with followers of Shark Tank and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout Wisconsin — know that he means what he says and says what he means,” Wikler mentioned.

Cuban has warned Musk to not belief Trump.

“[Trump] will burn all the things he touches. He doesn’t care,” Cuban instructed NBC Information host Chuck Todd. “I mentioned to Elon, ‘There’s going to return a time if you want one thing from Donald Trump and he’s going to disappoint you. Assured.’” 

The 6’2” former NBA group proprietor (he just lately bought his majority stake within the Dallas Mavericks, however retains a smaller portion of the group) is comfy and assured on platforms that enchantment to males, however that different Democrats sometimes keep away from, such as “All-In,” the podcast well-liked with anti-woke Silicon Valley varieties.

In a recent appearance on comic Theo Von’s vastly well-liked podcast, Cuban gamely dropped f-bombs, joked about disgraced hip hop mogul Diddy and knifed Trump with a smile to a bunch who’s a fan of the president and had him on as a visitor a couple of weeks earlier.

“I just like the man, if he was right here and we had been simply speaking s—, I’d get alongside nice with him. However that’s totally different from wanting him to be President of the USA once more,” Cuban instructed Von. “I believe you want somebody you’ll be able to belief. Is Kamala excellent? No. Do I agree with all the things she’s going to do or says or do? No. However I belief her.”

None of this, nevertheless, is unfamiliar territory for Cuban, who performed an analogous position in 2016 for Clinton’s in the end unsuccessful marketing campaign in opposition to Trump.

That 12 months, Democrats had been thrilled to observe Cuban taunt and insult his fellow billionaire-turned actuality TV star in ways in which Clinton herself would by no means dream of doing in public, questioning if Trump was actually a billionaire and saying he was unfit for workplace.

“I received not less than twice as a lot cash as him,” Cuban mentioned on Stephen Colbert’s present, earlier than working by means of a set of insult comedy jokes in regards to the measurement of Trump’s palms, his a number of bankruptcies and his “shiny, orange” look.

“Donald, the one method you’re price $10 billion is that if I paid you $9.5 billion to scrub my balls!” Cuban mentioned as the viewers cheered like background actors within the “You Received Served” movie franchise.

Democrats liked that Cuban appeared to have the ability to get underneath Trump’s pores and skin. Clinton invited him to take a seat within the entrance row of certainly one of her debates with Trump.

“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame desires to take a seat within the entrance row, maybe I’ll put Gennifer Flowers proper alongside him!” Trump tweeted forward of the controversy, referencing a woman who claimed to have an affair with Invoice Clinton earlier than his 1992 presidential run. 

Earlier than that marketing campaign, Trump and Cuban had a hot-and-cold relationship. In 2014, Trump tweeted that he had “far higher wealth and athleticism” than Cuban. In one other tweet that 12 months, he called Cuban “an asshole” and mentioned “Main League Baseball was actually sensible once they wouldn’t let Mark Cuban purchase a group.”

Cuban has toyed with the idea of running for president himself — Trump tweeted in 2017 that Cuban is “not sensible sufficient to run for president!” — though Cuban last year shut down the idea of running in 2024.

Nonetheless, not all Democrats are thrilled to see the get together’s leaders deliver a billionaire on the marketing campaign path.

Cuban, in spite of everything, has his personal agenda and a few on the left query what he may need from a possible Harris White Home

“Mark Cuban is a proficient communicator, and I get why having a billionaire actuality TV present persona fight Donald Trump holds enchantment to the marketing campaign. However billionaire tech bros usually have so much in frequent,” mentioned Jeff Hauser, founding father of the Revolving Door Venture, a progressive group centered on personnel appointments to key financial coverage positions.

Cuban has known as for the elimination of the pinnacle of the Safety and Trade Fee over his strategy to cryptocurrency regulation and has mentioned he would be interested in the job for himself. 

“Head of the SEC, head of the SEC, that’s the job I’d take,” he mentioned final month when requested by a Fox Information host if he would entertain taking a job in a Harris administration. He added that “possibly” he would think about being accountable for the Division of Well being and Human Providers as properly.

He’s additionally known as for eradicating Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan, a hard-charging progressive darling, prompting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, D-N.Y., to declare there could be “an out and out brawl” if “billionaires [who] have been making an attempt to play footsie” with Harris push for her elimination. 

“Harris’ paid adverts replicate a populist bent on economics, however it’s worrisome that Cuban may be capable of as an alternative elevate plutocratic goals inside a Harris Administration at odds along with her adverts by dint of private charisma.”