--- title: Mark Cuban: Democrats Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos description: “I learned the Democrats can’t sell worth shit," Mark Cuban said at a conference of anti-Trump Republicans. canonical: https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-02-22T19:14:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:48:24.472Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos og:description: Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos og:url: https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e96700954ce21cb/6998c454e1ba00a63b98d4b8/GettyImages-2188110838.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: WIRED's The Big Interview 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos twitter:description: Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e96700954ce21cb/6998c454e1ba00a63b98d4b8/GettyImages-2188110838.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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 [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 22, 2025 7:14 PM UTC  Mark Cuban speaks at a WIRED event in San Francisco on Dec. 03, 2024. Mark Cuban speaks at a WIRED event in San Francisco on Dec. 03, 2024.Jon Kopaloff—Getty Images for WIRED  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 22, 2025 7:14 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Mark Cuban is no fan of Donald Trump. The business moguls have a [long](https://time.com/4497748/donald-trump-mark-cuban-interview-challenge/), [complicated](https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-mark-cuban-friends-relationship-history) relationship that colored plenty of the 2024 presidential campaign as the reality stars sparred from afar. The frenemy-ship was one of the best subplots of last year’s hard-fought campaign, and one that is showing no sign of abating. Speaking Saturday to a conference of traditionalist Republicans, the Dallas Mavericks owner and serial entrepreneur suggested Trump merits slim admiration as he continues to hock anything that will slap his name on it, from cryptocurrency to clothing to the U.S. government itself. “The only reason someone sells all that shit is because they have to,” Cuban trolled. Cuban by contrast said he doesn’t need to slum it with such petty endeavors. “I don’t need to sell gold tennis shoes that may not ship,” he said, noting Trump’s effort in footwear that [warned](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-sneakers-fine-print-raises-questions-1871481) might never materialize. “He doesn’t want to govern. He wants to sell.” Bravado of that order is easy when you’re a billionaire. It’s just not clear that it translates to a viable governance strategy, especially with a rival billionaire holding the most consequential job on the planet. Cuban, a swaggering independent, was regrouping in Washington with anti-Trump Republicans at the Principles First summit, as the Trumpist wing of the party huddled across the river at this year’s [CPAC](https://time.com/7260570/cpac-trump-pardon-jan-6/), where Trump was set to speak this afternoon, and Elon Musk brandishing a chainsaw stole the show earlier this week. The striking split-screen Saturday hinted at the deeply unsettled moment in politics, as our most famous billionaires offer competing views of how to fix Washington. And for Cuban, that prescription was wrapped up in his withering assessment of the Democratic Party, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who he believes failed to reach voters last year. “If you gave the Democrats a dollar bill and said, ‘You can sell these for 50 cents,’ they would hire 50 people … and then would not know how to sell the dollar bill for 50 cents,” said Cuban, who hit the trail last year for Harris. “If you gave it to Donald Trump and said, ‘Sell this dollar bill for $2,’ he’d figure out a way, right? He’d tell you that $2 bill is, you know, huge.” All of which leads Cuban to having little optimism that Democrats can steer the country away from the Trumpian skid the nation finds itself enduring. “I learned the Democrats can’t sell worth shit,” Cuban said. In Cuban’s estimation, Democratic candidates did not demonstrate having any understanding of small businesses, the impact of inflation, the anxiety about immigration, or even the basics of the tax code. All of that conspired, thanks to bloated consultants looking over their shoulders, to their losses when a win was achievable. It’s also why, after his first event for Harris, he banned her consultants from chirping in his ear, he said, and why he’s watching with frustration and shock that they haven’t learned any lessons from last year’s loss. Cuban heaped scorn on those Democrats who keep repeating the arguments from the unsuccessful 2024 bid about Trump being a threat to democracy and a challenge to everything that Americans hold dear. “How’d that work in the campaign?” Cuban said. As Trump and Musk set about to scrap whole pillars of the federal bureaucracy, Cuban argued that the fascination on the wrecking ball is not a winning tactic because neither he nor Musk need to get it all right to change government in ways that will be difficult to unwind. “Elon doesn’t give a shit,” Cuban said. “He’s, like, ‘F— it, I’ll be rich no matter what.’” That said, Cuban was clear he has zero interest in being an elected player in a system he carries avowed contempt toward. “I don’t want to be President,” he said. “[I’d rather f— up health care](https://time.com/6234570/mark-cuban-interview-cost-plus-drugs/).” As both parties fret over the outsized influence of the super-rich, it is telling how much the prescriptions of celebrities with deep pockets continue to draw so much interest. Cuban’s needling of Democrats was rooted in how much he blames them for everything unfolding now. “Chaos is not good for this country,” Cuban warned. “There's no amount of money that overcomes that.” _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/"},"headline":"Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump's Chaos","datePublished":"2025-02-22T19:14:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:48:24.472Z","description":"“I learned the Democrats can’t sell worth sh-t.\"","url":"https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/","keywords":["The D.C. 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