Mark Cuban Tells Jon Stewart about Trump Phone Calls That Killed Initial Appeal, Any Potential Support

Mark Cuban opened up to The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart about phone calls with Donald Trump that took him by surprise after Stewart noted that the former president had an “initial appeal” for Cuban.

Cuban joined Stewart on The Daily Show on Monday evening to discuss advancements in AI, as well as growing support for Trump in Silicon Valley and the tech industry.

Stewart noted at one point that his billionaire guest has long been a “disrupter” in business and Trump had an initial appeal as the same personality type when he came into politics swinging. Cuban is arguably best known for his work on Shark Tank and as the owner of the Mavericks basketball team.

“I think you’ve said this, that Trump appealed to you at first because there is a certain outsider — and look, we both know our government, there is a status quo and there is a capture by lobbies and by big businesses that write this legislation and end up gaining advantage and that needs to be disrupted. When did it occur to you that he didn’t necessarily want to free it, he wanted to have the deed to the swamp signed over to him?” Stewart asked Cuban on Monday.

“About the third time I talked to him. He wasn’t about changing,” Cuban said.

The billionaire clarified he was referring to phone conversations after Stewart wondered whether Trump is a face-timing man.

Cuban recalled speaking to Trump when he was threatening to pull out of a CNBC debate in 2015.

“We were talking about this one debate for CNBC that he wasn’t going to be at — I’m like, Donald, why don’t you go to a local small business and sit there at the table and show off your business chops and show people you’re a businessman,” Cuban recalled.

He was shocked at Trump’s answer.

“He goes, Mark, Donald Trump and Mark Cuban don’t go to people’s houses and have dinner, are you kidding me? That’s who he is,” he said.

Cuban also recalled at the time wanting to discuss Trump’s “ground game,” but the Republican dismissed such strategy talks, declaring that he’s got “all these religious people who are going do the work for me.”

The “initial appeal” of Trump appears to have dissipated for Cuban after these conversations, which Stewart mockingly referred to as “counseling sessions.” Cuban said he last spoke to Trump during the Covid-19 pandemic to help with the government’s response, saying, “I was trying to help him with different things. Look, he’s still the president of the United States and it’s still our country.”

Watch above via Comedy Central .