Tech Billionaire Mark Cuban Rips Trump As The 'Zoolander President'

Dallas Mavericks owner won't rule out a 2020 presidential run.
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Texas billionaire Mark Cuban let loose on Donald Trump Sunday, blasting him as the “Zoolander president” — and wouldn’t rule out a race for the White House in 2020 to take him down.

Cuban zinged the president in a talk at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. He said he liked Trump “until he got to know him,” and then compared him to the clueless, ultra-narcissistic movie character Zoolander played by Ben Stiller. He also criticized Trump for being lost in the woods when it comes to technology. “Just think how efficient he could be if he learned how to use a search engine,” he quipped.

Cuban added: “I love the guy because he’s the only human being who trolls himself and doesn’t know it,” The Dallas Morning News reported.

The reality show “Shark Tank” investor who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team has clashed frequently with Trump. Last September he offered to pay $10 million to a charity of his choosing if Trump would meet him in a four-hour interview to explain his own policies. Trump responded that Cuban wasn’t “smart enough to understand what’s going on.”

After the election, Cuban said he would never hire Trump to run one of his companies because he lacks basic leadership skills.

Trump, who may feel the billionaire’s hot breath on his neck, tweeted just last month that Cuban wasn’t “smart enough to run for president.”

Cuban considers himself a libertarian and supports some of Trump’s policies, such as cutting regulations — though “not to such an extreme,” he has said.

But he believes the environment needs to be protected, and he’s opposed to Trump’s crackdown on immigrants, who he believes are good for the country. “Obviously we want the best talent globally,” Cuban said. “If they aren’t working for us, they’re working for someone else.” He also believes that access to health care should be a right.

Cuban said Trump doesn’t understand enough about technology’s effect on jobs and the economy to make smart changes. He urged people in the audience to start businesses in small towns in economically underserved regions in the U.S., such as communities in Kentucky and Virginia, that voted for Trump.

Cuban cautioned that someone’s going to have to run for the presidency the next time around who can “look forward,” instead of “acting like it’s 1975,” in another apparent dig at Trump.

Asked if he might run, Cuban mused: “I’ve got a lot of time to decide and we’ll see what happens.”

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