New York’s ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t believe in the capabilities of his democratic rivals. Image: AP
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With lots of cash and claws: How “Mini Mike” Trump wants to overthrow
Michael Bloomberg, 78, is one of the richest people in the world. He starts the race for the White House in March – with controversial methods and unpleasant legacies.
A specter is haunting the thought centers of the US Democrats. It’s called Bernie Sanders, he’s just survived a heart attack, is 78 years old and – after two pre-election battles in Iowa and New Hampshire – is well on the way to becoming a democratic candidate for the US presidential race. Sanders promises a revolution – and with his speeches pervaded by socialist ideas, drives democratic strategists to sweat with fear. The problem from their perspective: None of the moderate candidates – Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar – seem to be able to stop the Bernie movement.
That has now brought up another 78-year-old: Michael Bloomberg. The former mayor of New York (2002 to 2013) currently ranks 12th among the richest people in the world with 62 billion private assets. His main goal: to prevent a second Trump term – preferably with himself as president.
According to Thomas Friedman, the “experiments” Sanders (right) and Buttigieg (left) are too risky. Image: AP
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Many Democrats are concerned that another multibillionaire is joining Donald Trump in the race for the White House. “Selling democracy”, chant the Bernie followers. We don’t need another ’70 in the race, say the Buttigieg fans. But supporters of Bloomberg, who switched to the Republican Party in 2000 and only returned to the democratic camp in 2018 after a few years as an independent, see things differently. The New York journalist Thomas Friedman, for example, writes that Bloomberg is the only one who has the means and the strength to stand in the way of the thundering Trump machinery. You can’t afford to experiment – neither with the left Sanders, nor with the young Pete Buttigieg, nor with the ailing Joe Biden.
Trump’s overweight and the fairy tale of boxing
The past few days have shown that Bloomberg can easily keep up with Trump’s aggressive style. When the US president assumed that the 1.73-meter media mogul wanted to stand on a box in the upcoming TV debates in order to appear bigger, Bloomberg said: “The president is lying about everything: his false hair, his excess weight and his spray- Complexion.”
And “Mini Mike” – Trump’s nickname for Bloomberg – is not just like the US President in terms of his language usage. The two also have in common their understanding of politics. Like Trump, Bloomberg sees politics as an overwhelming monster that can hardly be tamed from the inside and therefore has to be tamed by an external force.
For this purpose, Bloomberg has already invested more than $ 300 million in TV, radio and online advertising (for comparison: Trump put 66 million of his personal assets in his political campaign in 2016). He pays his helpers almost twice as much as Bernie Sanders. And he is convinced that he has already given the US President sleepless nights. «Donald is worried about me. He knows I can beat him, ”said Bloomberg in a television interview.
Green roofs and silent journalists
His political priorities are the same as when he was Mayor of New York: a better health policy (he enforced the smoking ban in New York restaurants), more environmental protection (he had the high-rise roofs greened and new parks created) and a fairer financial policy (he increased taxes for rich townspeople).
But its legacies have also remained. Recently a recording of a speech appeared in which Bloomberg described African Americans as fundamentally more criminal than whites. There are also old stories about his dealings with women. In the 1970s, the divorced father of two today said he had a girlfriend in every US city. There is also talk of the motto that he passed on to the journalists of his media empire Bloomberg News: you must not report about him or his competitors.
Depending on the polls, Bloomberg is currently in third to fifth place in the democratic candidate field, and the trend is rising. Coming to the White House alone with a lot of cash and extended claws, that could work, Bloomberg believes. It would not be the first time.
