Mark Cuban thinks New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump have something in common, radically different politics aside.
On an episode of the podcast “Pod Save America” that aired on July 13, Cuban said that both Mamdani and Trump successfully focused on issues that immediately impact voters’ lives during their campaigns, regardless of whether their promises are realistic.
“We’re cutting rents, right? We’re changing grocery stores. None of that shit has a chance. Doesn’t matter,” Cuban said, referencing some of Mamdani’s key proposals. Mamdani has promised to freeze rent on all stabilized apartments in the city and replace members of the Rent Guidelines Board with people who will freeze rents every year of his term. He has pledged to create city-owned grocery stores that do not have to pay rent or property taxes, and can “pass on savings to shoppers,” per his website.
“This guy is walking in telling me he’s going to walk on water. He’s going to make me more money, he’s going to save me money, he’s going to make my life better,” Cuban said of how he thinks some New Yorkers understood Mamdani’s proposals. He said the tactic is “Trump 101. Is it true? Does it matter?”
Business Insider asked Cuban about why he doubts some of Mamdani’s plans, which the candidate plans to pay for in part by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5% and adding a 2% income tax on New Yorkers making more than $1 million.
“Until we see actual process and plans to actually implement a promise, I look at his, and all campaign promises, as nothing more than promises,” he told BI. He said Americans now vote for policies that they think could help them, “even if there is no evidence they could possible happen.” It is, he said, “analogous” to Trump’s promise to make Mexico pay for a border wall.
“We are going to do X, and someone else will pay for it,” he said. “That seems to be the path of least resistance to getting votes for any office.”
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Cuban told BI that he doesn’t plan to publicly support any of the mayoral candidates, since he’s not a New York City resident. Representatives for Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
Mamdani has thrown some of New York City’s business world into chaos. High-profile corporate leaders have publicly come out against him, and several spent big bucks trying to make sure someone else got the Democratic nomination. The 33-year-old mayoral hopeful recently said billionaires shouldn’t exist — Cuban is worth $5.7 billion, according to Forbes — but that he looks forward to working with “everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer.”
Cuban is far from the only non-New Yorker talking about the race — venture capitalist Shaun Maguire recently rocked the tech world with controversial comments about Mamdani.
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