If you had to have dinner with a famous businessman who leveraged their brand into a stint on reality television, most people would rather break bread with Mark Cuban rather than a Donald Trump (if the popular vote from the last two elections is anything to go by, at least).
In recent days Cuban has also shown his disdain for Trump, and predictably has been attacked by the former president’s supporters. In reference to a recently circulated video of Biden and Obama at a fundraiser in which opponents of the Democratic president appeared to lose his bearings, Cuban posted the following on Twitter/X:
“BOTH CANDIDATES ARE OLD. VERY OLD. They both are going to have senior moments, mis-remember, forget things and have physical frailties. I’ll tell you a not so secret secret: One is great at soundbites, but also thinks in soundbites. The other is awful at soundbites, but thinks in complete sentences. Voters will decide which we prefer.”
He didn’t stop there, later commenting on Trump and the American right’s denial of climate change science. This was given as another reason for his dislike of the former Epstein associate and current Republican candidate.
As he was already in the cross hairs of Twitter’s increasingly unhinged conservative sphere, it was no surprise to see the criticisms of Cuban come rolling in. Most focused on what they believed was hypocrisy from the billionaire, who owns and uses a private jet.
Jets are notorious for the pollution they create. A number of other people in the public eye have recently also been criticized for their gratuitous private jet use, including singer Taylor Swift.
While private jet use does contribute heavily to the climate crisis, it is far from the number one cause of pollution in the world.
Of course, Cuban’s hypocrisy doesn’t really take away from the fact that the Democrats are more climate-friendly than the Republicans, large numbers of whom have turned issues like rising sea levels and increased ferocity and number of wildfires into culture war issues.
Other anti-Cuban commentators discussed how Cuban’s “double standards” were indicative of the “left” as a whole. There was no mention of Trump’s similar age, nor the fact that the GOP candidate is a convicted felon despite the Republicans portraying themselves as a party of law and order.
While it is easy to take shots at Cuban, he is at least publicly drawing a line between himself and the increasingly cult-like Republican party. Other billionaires and powerful figures are more focused on playing both sides, regardless of the consequences, so the Shark Tank star can hold onto that.
