Howard Schultz, the attention-seeking billionaire and former Starbucks CEO who may or may not be running for president as an independent candidate, may have just stumbled upon a new campaign rallying cry, should he decide to run.
Schultz was a guest this weekend at the Unrig Summit in Nashville, TN, an event billed as a “right-left summit to solve America’s political crisis.” And according to Schultz, no one is more poised to solve America’s political crisis than Howard Schultz, who equally attacks both Democrats and Republicans on Twitter (in between tweets about college basketball) while offering no meaningful or original policy proposals.
After a brief introduction and a call by the host for Schultz to add some “badass grandmas” to his campaign—again, should he run—members of the audience stood up and began chanting, “Billionaires for president! Billionaires for president!”
It’s the perfect campaign slogan, as everyone knows that what this country needs in the next election cycle is another billionaire, because the current president is doing so well. Ok, well maybe Donald Trump isn’t actually a billionaire. Regardless, Schultz should definitely adopt this as his rallying call:
While in Nashville, Schultz also gave an interview to The Tennessean, in which he was asked about the issue of reparations to African Americans. Again, as a white billionaire, this is right in Schultz’s wheelhouse.
He says he doesn’t believe in the idea of reparations, because he “would rather look forward than look back.” Instead, he “would have a different view,” which is investing “within the African-American community,” according to the newspaper.
Specifically, Schultz said he would increase funding for historically black colleges and universities. “One idea is to look at opportunities to fund those schools in ways that would be incremental to the current situation,” he told The Tennessean.
Because as you know, the idea of boosting funding for HBCUs and creating a reparations program are mutually exclusive—it’s either one or the other, right?
Schultz did get some positive coverage Sunday, though, from none other than Steve Forbes, the former Republican presidential candidate, multimillionaire (he’s about a half-billionaire), and chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media. Forbes published the first of a two-part interview in which he described Schultz as “a man of enormous energy, creativity, compassion and determination.”
“His life story illustrates an astonishing capacity to learn, endure and succeed. He will not be deterred by the inevitable stumbles on the campaign trail,” Forbes wrote.
Billionaires for president! Yeah!