CNN and MSNBC’s morning shows both speculated that President Trump will be bothered by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s net worth, which is significantly larger than that of the president.
Bloomberg, 77, is now preparing to enter the Democratic presidential primary after months of consideration. While his campaign is not definite, he has hired staff, and he is expected to file paperwork in at least one state, Alabama, which would designate him a contender in the primary.
The former New York City mayor has a net worth of approximately $52 billion compared to Trump’s $3.2 billion, according to Forbes. Both CNN’s New Day and MSNBC’s Morning Joe speculated that this would bother the president on Friday morning.
Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist stated, “Nothing would make President Trump more angry than seeing the graphic that shows Mike Bloomberg worth $52 billion, according to Forbes, and he’s worth $3 billion. $50 billion difference there.”
Frequent guest Donny Deutsch then commented that “everything with Trump is size and Bloomberg has got the size where it matters to Trump.”
He brought up the difference in Trump and Bloomberg’s wealth again nearly an hour later on the show. “There is nothing that would be more — is going to get under Trump’s skin more than this,” he quipped, which led to Joe Scarborough questioning if Trump was “even a billionaire.”
The hosts of New Day also brought up the difference in their wealth during a segment with Maggie Haberman and David Gregory, both of whom are network political analysts.
“Can I just put up Maggie because I think you’ll find this particularly interesting given whom you’ve covered and how, this is the net worth of Michael Bloomberg vs. another billionaire, President Donald Trump,” anchor John Berman stated. “Bloomberg worth roughly $52 billion. Must be nice. And the president of the United States a meager $3.1 billion.”
Bianna Golodryga, who was on the show as a fill-in host, remarked, “Also not very relatable, but there’s a difference.”
“They’ve known each other in New York for a long time,” Haberman responded. “They were never friends traveling in the same social circles. But they did know each other. This is where I do think that Bloomberg will get under Trump’s skin. Bloomberg is all of the things that Donald Trump has tried to make himself in the telling of his own story, which is self-made, a billionaire worth many, many billions … So I think that that is going to be something that is going to needle him. I think just looking at that graphic, what will likely be a lot in the next couple of months. It’s going to bother him. The question, as always, is going to be how does he react to it?”
