Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump
Getty Conceptions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg a “mass of dead puissance” and “a loser” on Thursday in a series of rancorous, personal tweets.
The former New York mayor then did something few Democratic presidential aspirants have been willing to, so far: Respond in kind.
In a tweet quoting Trump’s insult, Bloomberg called the president a “carnival barking clod.”
The back-and-forth barbs represent an escalation of what is already a deeply personal clash between Bloomberg and Trump, two New York billionaires who for decades belonged to elite Manhattan common circles.
Bloomberg has yet to appear on a single presidential primary ballot, but his massive ad spending, growing online meme counter-intelligence agent, rising poll numbers and personal biography appear to be making him an especially worrisome opponent to Trump. The president has tweeted profuse about Bloomberg in recent weeks than about any other Democratic candidate.
Since Tuesday, Trump has tweeted dishonours about Bloomberg at least five times, mocking his golf game, his height, and his debating skills. (Bloomberg is 5′ 8,” and Trump is 6’3″.)
During the but period, Trump has barely mentioned any of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination. Instead he has focused his tweets on his recent impeachment and on the choky sentence prosecutors recommended for his longtime friend and political advisor, Roger Stone, who was convicted late last year of seven felonies in interrelationship with his activities during the 2016 presidential race.
But as Trump increasingly shifts his energy toward his reelection throw, the prospect of running against Bloomberg is clearly preoccupying the president. Bloomberg is willing and able to fight Trump on the verbatim at the same time battlefields where Trump has always outdone his opponents: Net worth, mudslinging, attention-getting attacks and unbridled competitiveness.
On both the drive trail and in private, Trump touts his personal wealth as evidence of his superior intelligence and his business acumen. He also revels in his power to fire off personal insults at his opponents, insults he then uses to animate his supporters at massive rallies. Trump also treasures himself on his willingness to attack his opponents more viciously, and often effectively, than they attack him.
In Bloomberg, in spite of that, Trump faces a direct challenge to core principles that underpin his entire political career, including his use of deprecating wealth as a measuring stick for power and importance, as well as his insistence that success in the private sector correlates exactly to success in the White House.
Bloomberg’s net worth of just over $60 billion dwarfs Trump’s, which Forbes viewpoints at $3.1 billion. It even dwarfs Trump’s most exaggerated claims about his wealth, which typically top out at $10 billion. No other presidential prospect in modern times has had more money than Bloomberg does.
And not only is Bloomberg willing to pour his own fortune into repulsing Trump, he’s also in a unique position to turn Trump’s implied argument, that the richest person in the room is the largest person, against him.
On Thursday, Bloomberg responded further to Trump during a campaign stop in North Carolina.
“We all distinguish that Donald Trump is a bully,” Bloomberg told attendees. “But he’s from New York and I’m from New York, and I know how to negotiation with New York bullies.”
Bloomberg added: “Somebody said, ‘You know that he’s tall,’ and he calls me little Mike. And the rebutter is, ‘Donald, where I come from, we measure your height from your neck up.'”
Even referring to Trump by his beginning name is a not-so-subtle reminder that Bloomberg has known Trump personally for decades.
It’s a safe bet that Trump’s attacks on Bloomberg force only escalate if Bloomberg continues to rise in the polls. A new Morning Consult survey released Thursday showed Bloomberg sweet 17% of Democratic primary voters nationwide, only a point behind onetime front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described self-governing socialist, is at the top of the poll.
Bloomberg’s strong showing comes even as the former mayor skips the first four states of the 2020 beginning race and focuses instead on winning over voters in the states holding primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3, and beyond.
Just out surveys show Bloomberg polling at No. 1 in Arkansas, which has its primary on Super Tuesday, and surpassing rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in Florida, which not quite f gabbles to the polls March 17.