Politics

Trump Launches First Twitter Troll On Howard Schultz

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President Donald Trump took his first Twitter swipe at fellow billionaire businessman Howard Schultz Monday after the former Starbucks chief announced plans Sunday to seek a presidential run as a “centrist independent.”

“Howard Schultz doesn’t have the ‘guts’ to run for President!” Trump tweeted, adding that after watching his Sunday night 60 Minutes interview, he agrees Schultz isn’t the “smartest person.”

Trump continued one of his notorious Twitter hits by adding the country already has the “smartest person” leading it and hopes Schultz, a longtime Democrat, is still paying rent on the Starbucks in Trump Tower.

Schultz tweeted Sunday that he was “seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent,” later adding that America’s top two political parties are “more divided than ever,” including a link to his personal website.

Several Democrats almost immediately came out against Schultz’s potential run, warning that his Independent bid could splinter votes in favor of Trump, thus re-electing him. Others even floated the idea of boycotting Starbucks if Schultz decides to run.

“I have a concern that if he did run, that essentially, it would provide [President] Donald Trump with his best hope of getting re-elected,” Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary under the Obama administration and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told CNN Sunday.

Others stated Schultz’s Independent bid is not what the country needs right now.

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, threatened to boycott the coffee chain over Schultz’s “vanity projects.”

“If he enters the race, I will start a Starbucks boycott because I’m not giving a penny that will end up in the election coffers of a guy who will help Trump win,” Tanden wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Schultz told Axios that he’s “unfazed” by the rush of pushback from Democrats online, and said in his 60 Minutes interview that he’s “not, in any way, in bed with a party.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Republican. Bring me your ideas. And I will be an independent person, who will embrace those ideas,” he added.

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