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- Mark Cuban said in 2016 that he has a “love-hate relationship” with Donald Trump.
- The two have traded insults and compliments in the press for years.
- Cuban initially supported Trump’s campaign, but has since become an outspoken critic.
In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, that Trump’s online outburst was likely tied to a New York Post article naming Cuban as a potential 2020 challenger.
in August, Cuban said he initially thought Trump was “great” until he “got to know him.”
“He’s not a typical Stepford candidate,” Cuban said. “I thought that was a positive.”
He added, “He was unethical then, and he’s still unethical.”
In an August appearance on “The Daily Show” hosted by Jon Stewart, Cuban shared the interaction with Trump that caused him to revoke his support.
“We were talking about this one debate for CNBC that he wasn’t going to be at — I’m like, Donald, why don’t you go to a local small business and sit there at the table and show off your business chops and show people you’re a businessman,” Cuban said. “He goes, ‘Mark, Donald Trump and Mark Cuban don’t go to people’s houses and have dinner, are you kidding me?’ That’s who he is.”
Cuban also told Stewart that when he asked Trump about his “ground game,” Trump replied, “Well, I got all these religious people who are going to do the work for me.”
In September, Cuban wrote on X that he thought Trump “was and would be a lousy president,” but that he doesn’t hate him personally.
“If he wasn’t running, I would be happy to take up his dinner invitation from when he was in office,” he wrote.
Cuban has also gone after Trump’s policies. In September, Cuban called Trump’s proposed 200% tariff on John Deere agriculture equipment produced in Mexico “insane” and a “good way to destroy a legendary American company.”