Dems fear coffee king candidate
An independent campaign for the presidency by the Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz could assure the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020, leading Democrats warned yesterday.
Schultz, 65, who built the coffee chain into a global franchise before stepping down as executive chairman last summer, said in a television interview due to be broadcast last night that President Donald Trump was unfit for office, and that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans were properly serving the people. He has hired consultants including Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s presidential campaign, who are said to be exploring the possibility of an independent run.
He has also embarked on a speaking tour for his new book, From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America, which burnishes his credentials as a self-made billionaire who grew up in public housing in Brooklyn and sought to change American corporate culture by giving his employees generous healthcare and stock options.
In an interview recorded for the CBS show 60 Minutes, Schultz, who has called himself a ‘‘lifelong Democrat’’, said the country was in a ‘‘fragile’’ state and that both parties were caught up in ‘‘revenge politics’’.
The suggestion that he might run as an independent prompted dismay in his home state of Washington, where Tina Podlodowski, local Democratic party chairwoman, told donors that he could ‘‘secure Trump’s reelection’’ by splitting Democratic support. ‘‘It keeps me up at night,’’ she said. Julian Castro, a former secretary of housing and urban development who is seeking the Democratic nomination, agreed that such a run would provide Trump ‘‘with his best hope of getting re-elected’’.
Polls had shown that Trump ‘‘has a ceiling of about 41 or 42 per cent, in terms of support for him,’’ Castro told CNN. ‘‘So his only hope, if things stayed the same – and that’s a big if – is essentially to get somebody else, a third party, to siphon off those votes.’’
Attempts to find a Republican challenger have been encouraged by a slump in Trump’s approval ratings, especially during the recent government shutdown. Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland, a moderate, has been the focus of many of these efforts, and has not discouraged them.
In an effort to halt any challenge, two former White House officials now plotting Trump’s reelection campaign helped to organise a resolution, passed by the Republican national committee last week, of ‘‘undivided support’’ for Trump’s leadership. John Weaver, an adviser to John Kasich, another potential Republican challenger, told the Washington Examiner: ‘‘Is it signalling strength or weakness if you feel like you need to do something like this?’’