WASHINGTON: As US President Donald Trump completed half of his four-year term this month, another American billionaire said in a Sunday night television show he wants to be the next occupant of the White House.
Howard Schultz, a former CEO of the world’s most popular coffee brand Starbucks, told “CBS 60 Minutes” he was considering mounting an independent bid for president in the next election. President Trump was elected in 2016 and completes his tenure in 2020.
“I think, like most people, I’ve become bored with President Trump and his tweets,” Schultz said in the interview. As expected, Trump used Twitter to respond to the new challenger, saying Schultz “doesn’t have the ‘guts’ to run for President!”
Schultz was Starbucks’ CEO and then executive chairman from 1986 to 2018. Rumours that Schultz wants to run for president started late last year when he changed his position from an active executive to chairman emeritus.
Forbes magazine, which monitors the world’s richest people, estimates the net worth of both Schultz and Trump as $3.1 billion each. In an apparent reference to America’s longest government shutdown, which ended on Monday, Schultz said Republicans and Democrats had both disappointed him because of their “reckless failure” in discharging constitutional responsibilities. Schultz is a Democrat.
Responding to a question about his business experience, he said that he had “a long history of recognising, I’m not the smartest person in the room.”
“In order to make great decisions about complex problems, I have to recruit and attract people who are smarter than me and more experienced, more skilled, and we’ve got to create an understanding that we need a creative debate in the room to make these kind of decisions,” he said.
Trump, however, depicted Schultz’s modesty as an admission of his lack of intelligence. “Watched him on last night and I agree with him that he is not the ‘smartest person,’” Trump wrote. “Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!”
Schultz’s announcement and Trump’s response dominated Monday morning talk shows across America and most commentators said Trump appeared to be baiting Schultz to run because he knew it would help his re-election campaign. Schultz, if he ran, is likely to divide the Democratic vote bank, as most Republicans are unlikely to vote for a lifelong Democrat. This will obviously benefit Trump.
Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019