NEW YORK – They are studied as boxers, they are provoked via Twitter with scathing comments and denigrating descriptions. They gained prominence in ManhattanThey made fortunes and like to put their names on anything.
But there the similarities between the president are over Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, two magnates with totally opposed visions, who now want the same job: Trump’s.
Bloomberg says that it is many things that Trump is not: He founded an economic information and media collection company that employs 20 thousand people, has a fortune of 60 billion dollars according to Forbes, is someone who solves problems with a stable temperament , elected three times mayor of New York and one of the largest philanthropists in the world.
“Bloomberg is someone Trump would have liked to be: Having invented something that everyone uses, that has real wealth, that is seen as a creative person. Trump had to invent an image of himself, ”said George Arzt, who was press secretary of New York Mayor Ed Koch and knows both magnates well, even on a personal level.
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He noted that Bloomberg is someone who likes to solve problems, get into something, even in the design of the trucks of the Department of Health, while Trump is “basically a showman.” Arzt stressed that Trump likes to be in the spotlight, while Bloomberg tried to avoid it until he could no more, when he ran for mayor.
Trump, who once considered himself a friend of Bloomberg, had a lapidary evaluation of his rival today in a recent interview with CNBC: “He is spending a fortune. Enriching many channels. And it doesn’t go anywhere. ”
Howard Wolfson, one of Bloomberg’s top advisors, replied: “Mike hired Donald Trump to run a golf course in the Bronx, but he wouldn’t hire him for any other activity. And the president knows it well. ”
Bloomberg ran for the Democratic presidential nomination and is taking a path that no one rehearsed until now, ignoring the first battles of the primaries and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on ads in the Super Tuesday states. Does not accept donations.
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Trump makes fun of Bloomberg calling him “Mini Mike”, alluding to his height (1.76 m or 5.8 feet). Bloomberg hit perhaps where Trump hurts most – in his ego – when a journalist asked him if the country wanted a fight between two billionaires in New York and he replied: “Who is the other?”
Bloomberg said that if he fails to nominate, he would still invest hundreds of millions of dollars to try to thwart Trump’s re-election.
Trump’s people look curiously at the fortune Bloomberg is investing in a campaign he entered at the last minute.
President Campaign Director Brad Parscale recently told his team that Bloomberg will not worry him as long as his support is below 10% (a Monmouth survey last week said it is 9%) and he He mocked the money he is spending, according to two Republicans with contacts in the White House who asked not to be identified because they were talking about private conversations.
Others close to Trump, however, show some apprehension. Trump himself included.
The president initially bothered with Bloomberg’s nomination and has told his collaborators that the former mayor was gaining ground.
Disregarding his advisors, Trump has published several tweets talking about Bloomberg and is said to be obsessed with his fortune.
Bloomberg is spending an average of $ 100 million per month and points his guns not at the other Democratic candidates, but at Trump, focusing on the general election, not the primary.
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While Trump does not have the same money as Bloomberg, he followed in his footsteps and invested $ 10 million in a Super Bowl ad.
Bloomberg is not only richer, but he had easy access to the high social circles of Manhattan, which see Trump as an invention of the tabloids and a reality TV character.
The two had friendly relations for a while, although not a close friendship. Occasionally they coincided in golf tournaments and charitable events, and both went to one of Rudy Giuliani’s wedding, Trump as a guest, while Bloomberg was the one who married them.
Occasionally they praised each other. In a charity golf tournament in 2007, Trump said it was “a great privilege to introduce someone who I think will go down in history as one of the best mayors in New York, if not the best.”
Bloomberg, on the other hand, appeared once on Trump’s “The Apprentice” program in 2004. And three years later he said in a ceremony that “if there is someone who has changed this city, it is Donald Trump.”
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