Mark Cuban: Love/Hate Relationship with Trump, Why He's Backing Kamala Harris
Jason Calacanis (host), Mark Cuban (guest), Chamath Palihapitiya (host), David Sacks (host), Narrator, David Friedberg (host), David Friedberg (host), David Sacks (host), Chamath Palihapitiya (host), Host (host), Jason Calacanis (host), Host (host), Guest (guest), Jason Calacanis (host), Narrator
In this episode of All-In Podcast, featuring Jason Calacanis and Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban: Love/Hate Relationship with Trump, Why He's Backing Kamala Harris explores mark Cuban Explains Backing Kamala, Blasts Trump, Rethinks AI And X Mark Cuban joins the All-In Podcast to unpack his two‑decade relationship with Donald Trump, why he believes Trump shouldn’t be president again, and why he’s now backing Kamala Harris despite remaining a political independent.
Mark Cuban Explains Backing Kamala, Blasts Trump, Rethinks AI And X
Mark Cuban joins the All-In Podcast to unpack his two‑decade relationship with Donald Trump, why he believes Trump shouldn’t be president again, and why he’s now backing Kamala Harris despite remaining a political independent.
He gives detailed critiques of Trump’s record on foreign policy, energy, and the national mood, and he grades the Biden–Harris administration on the border, spending, and regulatory policy while arguing Kamala shouldn’t be held fully responsible for Biden’s decisions.
Cuban also discusses existential issues like inflation, national debt, immigration, Ukraine and Israel, as well as domestic fights over crypto regulation, AI competition, and what real healthcare cost transparency would look like.
In the back half, he talks about selling most of the Mavericks, his Cost Plus Drugs mission, his views on AI business models, his adversarial-but-respectful relationship with Elon Musk, and why he’ll never run for president.
Key Takeaways
Cuban Supports Kamala Harris As A Defensive Vote Against Trump, Not As A Partisan Democrat
Cuban emphasizes he’s a lifelong independent who’s voted for both Republicans and Democrats, and says he would likely vote Republican if a non‑MAGA candidate were running. ...
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He Argues Trump’s Energy And Yemen Decisions Quietly Fed Into Today’s Inflation
Cuban lays out a specific (and controversial) causal chain: Trump’s 2019 decision to continue arms sales to Saudi Arabia in Yemen, then his 2020 deal brokering OPEC+ production cuts with MBS and Putin at the onset of COVID, substantially raised global oil prices as demand recovered while supply stayed constrained for two years. ...
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He Separates Biden’s Policy Failures From Kamala’s Role As ‘Employee’
Cuban is blunt that the Biden administration badly mishandled the border initially and overspent in ways that contributed to inflation, and he concedes Biden’s cognitive slowdown is real in terms of reaction speed and debate performance. ...
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Border, Immigration, And ‘Election‑Year Conversions’ Are Central Fault Lines
The group clashes over whether Kamala’s rhetoric on ICE and the wall, and her ‘border czar’ role, make her complicit in the border crisis. ...
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National Debt And Fiscal Discipline Loom As The Unspoken Bi‑Partisan Crisis
Friedberg walks through the arithmetic: federal debt is ~35–36 trillion and rising, with about $10 trillion rolling over at higher rates and interest costs potentially hitting ~$1. ...
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Cuban Sees Crypto Regulation As Broken, And Gensler’s Approach As Punitive And Counterproductive
Drawing on his own attempt to launch a token for Lazy. ...
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Cost Plus Drugs Is His Primary Legacy Project, Aiming To Break PBM Opaqueness
Cuban explains that Cost Plus Drugs posts actual acquisition cost plus a 15% markup and small fees, revealing just how inflated many pharmacy prices are. ...
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Notable Quotes
“I’m not a Democrat, I’m not a Republican, I’m an Independent through and through… If it wasn’t Donald Trump running, I’d probably vote Republican.”
— Mark Cuban
“He’s one of the world’s best schmoozers… but he doesn’t make any effort to learn anything. That’s why I don’t want Donald Trump to be president.”
— Mark Cuban (on Trump)
“Trump didn’t start any new wars? In Yemen we had a chance to get out, and he chose to keep selling weapons to the Saudis. A lot of people died because of that decision.”
— Mark Cuban
“Parties don’t exist anymore. The Republican Party is Trump’s family business. Kamala has learned from him — she knows she has to take over her party too.”
— Mark Cuban
“When I’m gone I want people to say: ‘He did it. It used to be expensive to get sick. It ain’t expensive no more.’ That’s what Cost Plus Drugs is about.”
— Mark Cuban
Questions Answered in This Episode
Cuban claims Trump’s OPEC+ production cut materially contributed to U.S. inflation; what specific counter‑evidence or alternative models would either bolster or refute his ‘oil‑to‑inflation’ causal chain?
Mark Cuban joins the All-In Podcast to unpack his two‑decade relationship with Donald Trump, why he believes Trump shouldn’t be president again, and why he’s now backing Kamala Harris despite remaining a political independent.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If Kamala Harris’s shift toward the center is genuine rather than purely electoral, what concrete policy reversals or new initiatives should we expect in her first 12–18 months that would prove Cuban right?
He gives detailed critiques of Trump’s record on foreign policy, energy, and the national mood, and he grades the Biden–Harris administration on the border, spending, and regulatory policy while arguing Kamala shouldn’t be held fully responsible for Biden’s decisions.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given Cuban’s criticism of both Trump’s Yemen decision and Biden’s handling of Ukraine, what would his ideal U.S. doctrine on proxy wars and arms sales look like in practice?
Cuban also discusses existential issues like inflation, national debt, immigration, Ukraine and Israel, as well as domestic fights over crypto regulation, AI competition, and what real healthcare cost transparency would look like.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Cuban argues AI and transparency can bend the federal cost curve; which agencies or programs would be the highest‑impact pilots for his ‘AI as a service’ approach, and how quickly could those changes realistically show up in the debt trajectory?
In the back half, he talks about selling most of the Mavericks, his Cost Plus Drugs mission, his views on AI business models, his adversarial-but-respectful relationship with Elon Musk, and why he’ll never run for president.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
On Cost Plus Drugs, what structural reforms (e.g., mandatory PBM transparency, CMS procurement changes) would most accelerate the model Cuban describes from a disruptive niche to a de facto national standard for drug pricing?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
All right, everybody. Welcome to the number one podcast in the world. Here we are on the All-In Podcast. We have a fifth bestie with us today. Joining David Freiberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and myself is the one and the only Mark Cuban. How you doing, buddy?
What's up, guys? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
Of course. Of course.
Good to have you here.
And, uh, thank you. I've been practicing my virtue signaling, so I'm ready. (laughs)
(laughs)
Let's go.
You ready to go? All right.
Let's go. Let's go.
I think we're gonna have twice the virtue signaling as normal in this episode. (laughs)
(laughs) Double the virtue signaling.
Now, I promise you, I don't virtue signal.
(laughs)
I'll say fuck you to anybody.
(laughs)
We're going all in. Let your winner slide. Rain Man, David Sacks. Going all in. And I said- We open source it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you guys. Queen of Quinoa. I'm going all in.
You have gotten very vocal about politics during this cycle.
Uh-huh.
And you seem to be, I don't know if it's official, you know, speaking on behalf of the Kamala ticket.
Uh-huh.
So why- why are you this active? What- what is the, um, reason that you've decided to get this active during this election? Because I'm proud to be an American.
(laughs)
(laughs)
(laughs)
That's exactly why. I mean, you know, we all make choices and think what's best for the country and show our patriotism in different ways. And, you know, I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican, I'm an Independent through and through.
Oh my God, like J-Cal, he's an-
Yeah.
... Independent too.
There we go.
Yeah.
Why is it that all the Democrats are afraid to call themselves Democrats?
Well, look, I've said this many, many times. If- if it wasn't Donald Trump running and it was a non-MAGA candidate, particularly if it was Joe Biden still, I'd vote Republican. I voted Republican before. If it was a non-MAGA candidate versus Kamala Harris, it would be, you know, let's look at the policies, let's look at the character of the people involved, and let's make a decision. It's- it's just Donald Trump is not a Republican. Republicans are Donald Trump. You- you know, the Republican Party is now the family business for Donald Trump. And to me, I just think Kamala Harris is a better choice for the country.
Mm. O- on a percentage basis, how often have you voted, just to level set, Democrat versus Republican, would you say, out of ten elections?
Presidential? Probably, I voted for George W twice, then I voted for, um, Obama twice, and then I voted for, um, Clinton and Biden. But before that, I voted for, um, Ross Perot Jr. My first vote was for a guy named, um, something An- um, John Anderson. So, I mean, I literally worked on Ross Perot Jr's campaign way back when.
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