Mark Cuban says he will not run for president in 2016 cycle, but Donald Trump's immense success is making the Mavericks owner think about mounting a campaign one day despite a lack of political experience.
"I do give Donald a lot of credit for changing the game," Cuban told CNBC Monday. "Up until now, you had to be a perfect candidate. You couldn't have a had a drink growing up. I think Donald changed that. He made it okay to be an imperfect candidate."
Cuban, the star of Shark Tank and beneficiary of selling Broadcast.com in 1999, has donated to Republicans and Democrats. In 2012, Cuban told Trump he would donate $1 million to a charity of Trump's choice if the fellow billionaire shaved his head. This came after Trump offered Barack Obama $5 million to produce passport applications and college transcripts.
Trump says he is worth $10 billion, but Cuban is skeptical. He calls Trump a "paper tiger."
If he did run for president this year, Cuban says he could beat either party frontrunner, Trump or Hillary Clinton. When asked about an earlier statement in which Cuban said he would "crush" Trump, the current AXS TV Chairman & CEO said:
"No question about it. What it's come down to is I think Hillary's kind of blowing it. There's no chance for her to win an election. When I said I would crush Trump, it's less on Donald and more on the Republican Party. The Republican Party requires all their candidates to conform on all the social issues. I think that's so out of touch with America today."
Cuban admits that "rich people just have a little more arrogance," referring to Trump's 2016 surge. He believes Trump's success is not only monetarily driven, but technologically-spurred.
"Most future voters will get their news from their Facebook, Snapchat, Cyber Dust, Instagram, Twitter feeds," Cuban says. "They open their apps and see what's there. They don't go looking for depth and explanation.
"If you as a candidate can't find your way into those feeds, you basically don't exist."
Cuban already played the fictional American president in Sharknado 3. He also led the Mavericks to an NBA championship in 2010-11.
Could a future victory come in a presidential election? After all, Trump cannot even argue that Cuban is a "total winner."
-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.