--- title: "He Doesn't Have the Guts." Trump Hits Out At Howard Schultz description: President Trump tweeted that Howard Schultz “doesn’t have the guts” to be President, after he said he might run as an independent in 2020. canonical: https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/ author: Billy Perrigo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-28T14:47:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:36:41.131Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says Howard Schultz 'Doesn't Have the Guts' To Be President og:description: After the ex-Starbucks chief announced he might run as an independent in 2020 og:url: https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1297c2151ba8e66/69894410457a522d55d60646/gettyimages-467043632.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Starbucks Holds Annual Shareholders Meeting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says Howard Schultz 'Doesn't Have the Guts' To Be President twitter:description: After the ex-Starbucks chief announced he might run as an independent in 2020 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1297c2151ba8e66/69894410457a522d55d60646/gettyimages-467043632.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says Howard Schultz 'Doesn't Have the Guts' To Be President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Jan 28, 2019 2:47 PM UTC  Then-Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. He stepped down in June 2018, and announced on Sunday he was mulling running for President in 2020 as an independent. Then-Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. He stepped down in June 2018, and announced on Sunday he was mulling running for President in 2020 as an independent. Stephen Brashear—Getty Images  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Jan 28, 2019 2:47 PM UTC President Trump said Monday that Howard Schultz “doesn’t have the ‘guts’” to be President, a day after the ex-Starbucks Chairman and CEO told CBS’ _60 Minutes_ he was mulling running as an [independent candidate](http://time.com/5514417/howard-schultz-starbucks-trump/) in 2020. “Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “\[I\] Watched him on 60 Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the ‘smartest person,’” Trump continued. “Besides, America already has that!,” he added, apparently referring to himself. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1089881244312178688) Like Trump, Schultz is a former donor to the Democratic Party. “We’re living at a most fragile time,” Schultz told CBS on Sunday. He went on: “Not only the fact that this President is not qualified to be the president, but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what’s necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged every single day in revenge politics.” Schultz has positioned himself as a business-minded centrist, and has criticized policies like single-payer healthcare supported by Democrats who have thrown their hats in the ring for 2020. “It concerns me that so many voices within the Democratic Party are going so far to the left,” Schultz told CNBC in June 2018\. “I ask myself, ‘How are we going to pay for all these things?’ In terms of things like single-payer or people espousing the fact that the government is going to give everyone a job. I don’t think that’s realistic.” Democratic Party stalwarts, meanwhile, [expressed](http://time.com/5514417/howard-schultz-starbucks-trump/) their concern that Schultz’s decision to run as an independent could split the anti-Trump vote and hand the President a second term at the next election. Schultz, who stepped down from Starbucks in June, has an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion, according to [_Forbes_](https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#74f1f14f7e2f). Trump’s is $3.1 billion, according to the same calculations. A sense of competition might have informed the last line of Trump’s tweet: “I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/"},"headline":"President Trump Says Howard Schultz 'Doesn't Have the Guts' To Be President","datePublished":"2019-01-28T14:47:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:36:41.131Z","description":"After the ex-Starbucks chief announced he might run as an independent in 2020","url":"https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/","keywords":["2020 elections","Donald Trump","Howard Schultz","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1297c2151ba8e66/69894410457a522d55d60646/gettyimages-467043632.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Billy Perrigo","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1297c2151ba8e66/69894410457a522d55d60646/gettyimages-467043632.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Starbucks Holds Annual Shareholders Meeting","caption":"Starbucks Holds Annual Shareholders Meeting","creditText":"Stephen Brashear—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-elections/","name":"2020 elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5514457/trump-howard-schultz-guts/","name":"President Trump Says Howard Schultz 'Doesn't Have the Guts' To Be President"}}]}] ```