Billionaire business owner Mark Cuban, who is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in next week’s election, has apologized for comments he made about her Republican opponent.
On Thursday, the Dallas Mavericks owner said during an appearance on ABC‘s The View that former President Donald Trump did not surround himself with “strong, intelligent women.” Cuban made the comment in response to co-host and former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin’s question about Trump not asking Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who ran for the Republican presidential nomination earlier in the race, to help him bolster support from female voters.
“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever. It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them,” Cuban said. “Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.”
Addressing his comments, Cuban wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “When I said this during the interview, I didn’t get it out exactly the way I thought I did. So I apologize to anyone who felt slighted or upset by my response. As I said, it wasn’t about Trump voters, supporters or employees. Current or former.”
When I said this during the interview, I didn’t get it out exactly the way I thought I did. So I apologize to anyone who felt slighted or upset by my response. As I said, it wasn’t about trump voters, supporters or employees. Current or former
And, I set myself up for the 6… https://t.co/u0BNmrHiaL
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) November 1, 2024
Cuban’s comments on The View drew ire from Trump, those who have worked with him and his supporters. The former president released a statement on Truth Social, branding Cuban a “fool” and a “major loser.”
“All strong women, and women in general, should be angry about this weak man’s statement,” Trump wrote.
Republicans and Trump allies flocked to defend the former president. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, released a video message on X in response to Cuban’s remarks, saying, “Here’s the problem with Mark Cuban: He suffers from low testosterone.”
“He’s actually intimidated by strong, intelligent women like me,” Greene added after doing pullups.
Mark Cuban at the TD Garden in Boston on March 1, left, and former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta on October 28. Cuban is facing a backlash after saying the Republican presidential nominee does not surround himself with “strong, intelligent women.”
Brian Fluharty/Anna Moneymaker/GETTY
Kayleigh McEnany, who served as a press secretary in Trump’s White House, said she found Cuban’s statement “profoundly offensive.”
“I worked for Donald Trump,” McEnany said on Fox News. “I consider myself a strong woman. I consider those around me strong women.”
In March, Haley bowed out of the presidential race and later endorsed Trump, but she has not been on the campaign trail with him and has been critical of his campaign. Speaking with Fox News host Bret Baier on Tuesday, she said Trump and his team had a “bromance” that “makes women uncomfortable.”
“You’ve got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling Kamala the c-word,” Haley said, referring to a recent ad by Elon Musk‘s political action committee. “You had speakers at Madison Square Garden referring to her and her ‘pimps.’ That is not the way to win women.”
