Michael Bloomberg joins the race for the White House
Billionaire former New York mayor faces uphill struggle to connect with voters

The billionaire former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has officially announced that he is standing to be the Democratic Party presidential nominee.
“I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,” Bloomberg announced on his campaign website.
“We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It is believed that he will take a moderate, centrist position. Launching his bid, he described himself as “a doer and a problem solver - not a talker”.
CNN says Bloomberg’s late bid “injects a new level of uncertainty into the race less than three months before the first voting in the race begins”. Meanwhile, USA Today notes that Bloomberg was a Republican in 2001 ahead of his first mayoral bid.
America’s eighth wealthiest man, Bloomberg has a net worth of $53.4bn. He made his fortune creating the technology that bankers and traders use to access market data, before turning to politics and serving three terms as mayor of New York City.
He is expected to spend up to $34m per a week on adverts in more than two dozen states. The Times says this will be the highest one-week expenditure in US political history, surpassing the $30m that Barack Obama spent while seeking re-election in 2012.
Bloomberg’s bid has already been dismissed by rivals, with Elizabeth Warren saying that “elections should not be for sale”. He also faces an uphill task to connect with Democrat voters, with a Quinnipiac poll in New Hampshire showing that only two per cent of primary voters back him to become the party’s presidental candidate.
Bloomberg has missed the first five TV debates and will likely not make it on stage for the sixth next month due to polling and donation requirements.
No Democrat has won the nomination after such a late start in modern times, though Ronald Reagan, a Republican, became president in 1981 after joining the race in mid-November.
Bloomberg’s first television campaign ads tell viewers: “He could have just been the middle class kid...but Mike Bloomberg became the guy who did good.”
The ad then turns attention to Trump, saying the mayor is “taking on him”, as an image of Trump freezes on screen.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Trucking is a dangerous business'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Higher toy prices from Trump's tariffs have arrived
In the Spotlight Three out of four toy products in the US come from China
-
'Trucking is a dangerous business'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policies
Speed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Obama, Bush and Bono eulogize USAID on final day
Speed Read The US Agency for International Development, a humanitarian organization, has been gutted by the Trump administration
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor
In The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
Trump's strikes on Iran: a 'spectacular success'?
In Depth Military humiliations 'expose the brittleness' of Tehran's ageing regime, but risk reinforcing its commitment to its nuclear program
-
Some mainstream Democrats struggle with Zohran Mamdani's surprise win
TALKING POINT To embrace or not embrace? A party in transition grapples with a rising star ready to buck political norms and energize a new generation.
-
Will NATO countries meet their new spending goal?
today's big question The cost of keeping Trump happy
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible