Bloomberg, Trump among interesting trend of ultra-rich running for president

Jackson Jogan '21, Supervising Editor
December 22, 2019

Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor is the latest in a series of billionaires to run for president, including Donald Trump and Tom Steyer. Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Donald Trump is seeking reelection to the presidency in the 2020 election cycle. His net worth far surpasses every president combined. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
)[/caption]Michael Bloomberg entering the 2020 presidential race continues the trend of the ultra-rich running for president, which began with Donald Trump in 2016. These candidates are vastly different than anything we’ve seen across United State’s history.

Trump’s peak net worth, 3.1 billion US dollars, is more than the combined peak net worth of every single president that served before him. You could subtract the combined peak net worth of all the previous presidents and Trump would still have 55.1 million dollars remaining. This is a staggering figure. Bloomberg’s current net worth: 54 billion dollars.

This means that Bloomberg’s wealth is roughly 9 times larger than that of Trump and all previous presidents combined wealth. If you thought Trump was rich, Bloomberg is so far beyond rich it’s laughable.

Now, I am of the opinion that Trump and Bloomberg are only similar in their residency in the top 300 richest Americans. Their policy couldn’t be further apart. Bloomberg is pushing for gun control, supporting education, creating a new healthcare system and fixing our environment. Trump’s focus lies in reforming the tax code, cutting regulations, veteran care and increasing border security.

Bloomberg also had political experience as the mayor of New York City prior to running for president. Trump had no formal political experience, but managed to win the presidency nevertheless.

This growing trend of supporting the ultra-rich regarding political campaigns is very interesting to me. I feel as though people are beginning to move past the classical ideal of a quote-on-quote normal political figure. Trump and Bloomberg are past what I would consider even normal people. They exist in the 0.000084 percent of wealth in the US.

This isn’t a bad thing, though. It is refreshing to see a change from the norm. I think that having people with extensive wealth in office is good for the business side of running the country. As we’ve seen the economy grow under Trump, I feel that we should be continuing this trend of electing people Wall Street will trust to make the right economic decisions.

Trump and Bloomberg are not the same person. Neither of them fit the stereotypical politician that is so often seen in the public arena, though. Our country is in a new place politically following the 2016 election of Donald Trump, and I support this changing ideal. We need strong economics, as a strong economy can help solve many problems that exist in our country today.