For the first month of President Trump’s campaign in 2015, many Republicans weren’t sure if he was sincerely trying to win. Now, the same feeling is being expressed about the campaign of fellow New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
But whereas Trump soared to the top of Republican primary polls within a month of his June 2015 launch, Bloomberg’s late-November entry into the Democratic primary has yet to dispel doubts. His first campaign tweet hovers near only 400 retweets, and he’s polling in single digits.
Veterans of Trump’s campaign say Bloomberg is showing money can’t buy an election and that the three-term former New York mayor is exhibiting a low-energy effort. They said it is failing to galvanize support as Trump did with social media and campaign stops so eventful that they were carried live on most cable news networks.
Bloomberg is “trying to sneak in the back door,” said Stuart Jolly, who in 2015 was Trump’s Southeast political director. “Trump, on the other hand, kicked the front door down on the RNC process and then called everyone’s baby ugly.”
“To me, its a tale of two billionaires,” Jolly said. “One, Trump, who jumped in the mud pit and respected the process and went toe-to-toe with the competition. And the other, obviously, is a billionaire who seems to be trying to leverage his money to buy his way into the game and avoid getting muddy.”
Jolly claimed he recently fell asleep while attempting to watch a “snoozefest” speech by Bloomberg. He said he sees a gap in enthusiasm, in part, because of Trump’s persona, but also because Trump focused on issues with broad national appeal, such as trade and immigration.
“The difference that I see with Bloomberg is that he’s in it to push his own agenda and his own ideas … I don’t see taking straws and keeping people from drinking Coca Cola as something to run on as president,” said Jolly, who became Trump’s national field director.
New York City Councilman Joe Borelli, an early Trump backer, said Bloomberg “lacks political self-awareness.”
“He fixates on nanny-state politics and is willing to overlook broader issues,” Borelli said, adding: “He is someone who perceives the entire world as someone at its highest echelon.”
Borelli, a 2016 state co-chairman for Trump, said Bloomberg’s record as mayor wouldn’t play well should he win the Democratic nomination. Although he was first elected as a Republican, Bloomberg significantly increased taxes, he said. Bloomberg’s actions to change local law to allow him to seek a third term invites abuse of power allegations, he said.
“The myth doesn’t meet reality, and it’s going to take time for him to build momentum,” Borelli said. “If he does win the nomination, he’s going to be a serious contender … but he has a very checkered record.”
Bloomberg’s campaign stops have been decidedly low-key compared to Trump’s raucous rallies of 2016, where fired-up supporters fought with protesters on live TV. And on Twitter, Bloomberg has tweeted relatively infrequently.
In the 10 days before he announced his campaign on Nov. 24, Bloomberg tweeted five times: twice about tobacco and e-cigarettes, once about gun policy, and twice about his plans to spend money during his campaign — $100 million on an initial ad campaign and $15-20 million on voter registration.
“President Trump was the ultimate political outsider when he began to run for president. Michael Bloomberg is a professional career politician,” said former Trump campaign deputy manager David Bossie. “Bloomberg is trying to buy his following by flashing money around and using poll-tested, scripted language, and the American people see through that — on Twitter and elsewhere.”
A Bloomberg spokesman dismissed negative critiques from Trump campaign veterans.
“His focus is on guns, climate change, healthcare, jobs, immigration, and restoring America’s standing in the world — not sure any of those qualify as ‘niche,'” said Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna. “And his commitment to ensuring Donald Trump is not reelected also has quite a broad appeal.”
But Michael Caputo, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign in 2015 and 2016, said there’s a definitive “chasm” between the billionaires.
“The president understands and feels compassion and works hard to improve the lives of working-class Americans the Washington elite left behind; Bloomberg sees us as a nuisance,” Caputo said. “Trump saw a clear path to the White House carried on the shoulders of the citizens of Flyover Country; Bloomberg is casting about for a path to get around us.”
