Move over politicians, reality TV stars as presidents could be here to stay.
"Shark Tank" host, investor, businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn't shut down the possibility Wednesday of making his own run for the Oval Office.
In an interview on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," the host asked Cuban if he would consider mounting a challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020.
"I don't want to say no ... but it's not my dream to be president of the United States," Cuban said. "Would I like to have influence? I love helping entrepreneurs and love helping to create jobs. ... I'm good at that. If I can continue to do that, I'm happy."
The victory came at Verizon Center, just a few blocks from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., an address some believe Cuban covets as a future residence. But if this was the first stage of a “Cuban Takes Washington” move, the tech mogul was playing it coy.
“None. None,” he told The Washington Post when asked if he was interested in running for president. “But at the same time, sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
Okay then. Anything else, Mark?
“I’m not the ceremonial type. I’m a go-get-[stuff] done type. I’m a grinder, and I don’t know if that’s a good fit.”
So, that’s a no, with something of a caveat — that the current occupant of the Oval Office could make him reconsider. A Donald Trump presidency was why he took to the stump last summer for Hillary Clinton in the first place.
“I knew Donald and I was concerned,” Cuban said.
His time on the stump made him realize that the electorate was not looking for another politician. He said voters were looking for an outsider who accurately voiced certain frustrations. Clinton didn’t always tap into that, he said.
“Sometimes you learned what to do, sometimes you learned what not to do,” Cuban said about campaigning with the former secretary of state and first lady. “I didn’t listen to my own instincts in some respects. I always thought people would vote based off logic and self-interest. But at least this election, people voted out of frustration.
“Like my friends in Texas who I never would have thought would have voted for Donald Trump, would say, ‘You know what, Mark? I’ve voted for politicians my entire life. They’ve done nothing for me. This situation I’m in, they’re not going to do anything for me … So why would I vote for a politician again?’ That wasn’t a part of the calculus when I looked at who might win.”
Now Cuban is focusing on technological literacy in the White House and on Capitol Hill. The factories Trump promised to resurrect on the campaign trail, those jobs aren’t coming back, Cuban said, noting that new factories run on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“And if you don’t build that into your expectations for employment,” he said, “for health care, insurance, it’s going to be brutal.”
source:- washingtonpost
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