Harris endorses Mark Cuban while Elon Musk supports Trump

As Elon Musk steps up his work for former President Donald Trump, Kamala Harris is calling on her own billionaire Mark Cuban to repeat the role he played for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by making a series of high-profile appearances alongside the vice president President and her husband are holding this week.

Cuban appeared with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday and is scheduled to hold a town hall in Phoenix on Saturday before traveling to Michigan the next day to campaign alongside Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

“This election is a battle for entrepreneurs,” Cuban said Thursday in La Crosse, Wisconsin, before warning that Trump's trade and tariff policies are driving up prices, ruining Christmas by making gifts more expensive and “the dreams” of entrepreneurs will destroy, making their costs prohibitive.

“Donald Trump is the Grinch who wants to steal Christmas from you,” he said. “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 appeal in pop culture and an idiosyncratic personality that is seen as particularly attractive to young men who have become the hottest In an election where the gender gap reached historic proportions, demographics were contested.

Harris — whose campaign linked Cuban's tour to his outreach to male voters — recently appeared on shows like “All The Smoke” and “The Breakfast Club” with Charlamagne Tha God. The campaign also ran ads on platforms with a more male audience, such as gaming site IGN, major sporting events and sports talk radio.

Although Cuban has downplayed the need for Harris to target men, he could be an integral part of that effort and has already advocated for Harris in a semi-official capacity in podcasts and media interviews.

He has also been an envoy to the business community, helping to launch a group called Venture Capitalists for Kamala, which now has nearly 900 signatories, and Business Leaders for Harris.

Cuban's efforts come as Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and one of the richest men in the world, appears alongside Trump, himself a billionaire, and is now conducting a series of “conversations” with voters in Pennsylvania, separate from the campaign .

Unlike Musk, who has donated nearly $75 million to pro-Trump groups, Cuban is not a political donor. Federal Election Commission records show a single donation of $1,000 was made in 2002 to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, under Cuban's name.

But Harris allies say Cuba's voice and personality are more valuable than his money.

For example, a new poll from Equis Research focused on Latino voters found that Cuban is the most popular figure it tested among Hispanic men under 50, with a net popularity rating 15 percentage points higher than Musk's.

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler praised Cuba's “talents” and said he has the credibility to reach voters on business and economic issues. “His many fans – including fans of Shark Tank and aspiring entrepreneurs across Wisconsin – know that he means what he says and says what he means,” Wikler said.

Cuban warned Musk not to trust Trump.

“(Trump) will burn everything he touches. He doesn’t care,” Cuban told NBC News host Chuck Todd. “I said to Elon, 'There will come a time when you need something from Donald Trump and he will disappoint you.' Guaranteed.'”

The 6-foot-11 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 that other Democrats typically avoid , such as “All-In,” the podcast popular with Silicon Valley anti-woke people.

During a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von's wildly popular podcast, Cuban boldly dropped F-bombs, joked about disgraced hip-hop mogul Diddy, and stabbed Trump with a smile at a host who is a fan of the president and had him as a guest a few weeks earlier.

“I like the guy, if he was here and we were just chatting I would get along 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 she will do, say, or do? No. But I trust her.”

However, none of this is new territory for Cuban, who played a similar role in Clinton's ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Trump in 2016.

This year, Democrats watched with delight as Cuban mocked and insulted his fellow billionaire-turned-reality-TV-star in ways Clinton himself would never imagine doing in public. They questioned whether Trump was really a billionaire and said he was unfit for office.

“I have at least twice as much money as him,” Cuban said on Stephen Colbert’s show, before running through a series of insulting jokes about the size of Trump’s hands, his multiple bankruptcies and his “shiny, orange” appearance.

“Donald, you're only worth $10 billion if I pay you $9.5 billion to wash my balls!” Cuban said as the audience cheered like supporting actors in the “You Got Served” film series.

Democrats liked that Cuban appeared to be able to get under Trump's skin. Clinton invited him to sit in the front row at one of her debates with Trump.

“If stupid Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants a front row seat, maybe I'll put Gennifer Flowers right next to him!” Trump tweeted before the debate, referring to a woman who claimed to have one before he ran for president in 1992 Having an affair with Bill Clinton.

Before this campaign, Trump and Cuban had a heated relationship. In 2014, Trump tweeted that he had “far more wealth and athleticism” than Cuban. In another tweet that year, he called Cuban “an asshole” and said, “Major League Baseball was really smart when they didn't allow Mark Cuban to 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 Cuban dropped the idea of ​​running in 2024 last year.

Still, not all Democrats are thrilled that party leaders are bringing a billionaire into the campaign.

Cuban has his own agenda, after all, and some on the left wonder what he might expect from a potential Harris White House

“Mark Cuban is a talented communicator, and I understand why having a billionaire personality take on Donald Trump on a reality TV show is so attractive to the campaign trail. But billionaire tech bros often have a lot in common,” said Jeff Hauser, founder of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive group focused on filling key economic policy positions.

Cuban has called for the removal of the head of the Security and Exchange Commission over his approach to cryptocurrency regulation, saying he would be interested in the job for himself.

“Head of the SEC, head of the SEC, that's the job I would take,” he said last month when asked by a Fox News host if he would consider taking a job in a Harris administration . He added that he would “maybe” consider taking the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services as well.

He also called for the ouster of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, a diehard progressive darling, prompting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to declare that there would be “an all-out brawl” if “Billionaires (who)” “I tried to play footsie,” as Harris pushes for her removal.

“Harris' paid ads reflect a populist bias on the economy, but it is concerning that Cuban's personal charisma could instead enable her to pursue plutocratic goals within a Harris administration that are at odds with her ads. “