Ahead of news that the partial government shutdown had ended, Michael Bloomberg made a round of speeches mocking President Donald Trump as a competence-free “pretend CEO,” comparing his tenure to a scary movie.
Speaking at a Friday gathering of the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia, the former New York City mayor flayed the president for triggering chaos in Washington. Bloomberg vowed to make sure the president doesn’t serve another term.
“The presidency is not an entry-level job,” Bloomberg said. “There is just too much at stake.”
“And the longer we have a pretend CEO who is recklessly running this country, the worse it’s going to be for our economy and for our security. This is really dangerous.”
He then panned Trump’s White House with a film reference, suggesting there wasn’t much separating the president from a villain.
“It’s like the government version of a bad horror movie, but instead of Freddy Krueger and the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ we’ve got Donald Trump and the ‘Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.’”
Following his appearance at the business council’s event, Bloomberg made a stop at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., where he echoed his previous sentiments and laid out a strong condemnation of the shutdown.
“This is about competence and the lack of it we are seeing in the White House,” he said. “The government shutdown is a complete failure of executive leadership, and it’s one of the worst cases of incompetent management I have ever seen.”
Bloomberg, who has flirted with the idea of a presidential run, has still made no mention of his plans for 2020. However, last month, he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would run as a Democrat and intends to make his decision early this year.