Billionaire Mark Cuban is retracting comments he made Thursday during an appearance on “The View” regarding female supporters of Donald Trump. During the show, Cuban, who is known for his role on “Shark Tank” and as a minority owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, asserted that Trump is intimidated by intelligent women. “Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,” Cuban remarked to the largely liberal female hosts of the ABC program. “It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like being challenged by them.”
Cuban has been vocally opposing Trump’s 2024 campaign while supporting Kamala Harris for president. Facing backlash for his comments about women voting for Trump, Cuban sought to clarify his remarks in a subsequent interview with conservative female radio host Martha Zoller.
“I am a strong, intelligent woman. I’m also a conservative,” Zoller pointed out to Cuban. He responded, “I wasn’t saying that Republican women aren’t strong, intelligent. That’s obviously not the case.” He added, “I probably should have given examples that he has worked with Kellyanne Conway, Tulsi Gabbard, Linda McMahon, and that probably would have clarified some of it. He’s worked with a lot of really strong, intelligent women, I just have not seen them with him side by side on the campaign trail.”
With just four days remaining until Election Day, Trump remains the betting front-runner with implied odds of 62%. Harris is the underdog at 38%, although her odds have improved recently.
Late last year, Cuban sold a controlling interest in the Mavericks franchise to Las Vegas billionaire Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who was the founder and longtime chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands empire. Dr. Adelson, one of Trump’s largest donors and closest allies, is worth an estimated $35 billion, which is more than five times Cuban’s fortune. She is a significant supporter of Israel and achieved her medical doctorate from Tel Aviv University and her bachelor of science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Adelson, who owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Israel Hayom newspaper, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump in 2018 for her philanthropic work in medical research, Holocaust memorialization, and commitment to strengthening the American Jewish community.
Trump seized the opportunity to criticize Cuban’s remarks, which followed President Joe Biden calling Trump’s supporters “garbage.” Trump fired back in a lengthy tweet on X, stating, “Mark Cuban, a really dumb guy, who thinks he’s ‘hot stuff’ but he’s absolutely nothing, is now out there saying that I don’t surround myself with strong women. Actually, he is very wrong, I surround myself with the strongest of women — with the understanding that ALL women are great, whether strong or not strong.”
Trump continued, “This guy is such a fool, he’s constantly on television being critical, and only for the reason that I tuned him out completely while President because he called incessantly. I told him, very pointedly, ‘Look Mark, I’ve got a lot of things to do, I just can’t be taking so many pointless calls from you.’ In any event, that affected him greatly, because he’s a very insecure guy, and a MAJOR LOSER, always has been and always will be.”
Dr. Adelson is expected to contribute over $100 million toward re-electing Trump in 2024. Cuban’s strong opposition to Adelson’s support of Trump and disparaging comments about women who campaign for Trump may lead to some internal conflicts within the Mavs organization as the NBA regular season begins.
Dr. Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, the Sands’ chief financial officer, acquired 73% of the Dallas NBA team in December 2023 for more than $3.5 billion. Cuban retains the remaining 27%. While Dr. Adelson agreed to allow Cuban to remain as head of basketball operations, Dumont was appointed governor of the organization, the chief executive position of the franchise.
