Michael Bloomberg

Michael R. Bloomberg is a Democrat  Republican  independent Democrat, the 12th richest man in the United States, and was the 108th Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. His annual salary as mayor was $1.

Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University (where there is now a Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Harvard University before being elected mayor of New York in November 2001. He is also a well-known philanthropist and businessman. He started Bloomberg LP in 1981 and even has his own news channel.

There was speculation about a possible bid for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He said no. There was also speculation that he would try to run for Governor of New York in 2010. He said no. There was some more speculation that he would seek the presidency in 2012. He said no. Then there was even more speculation that he would seek the presidency in 2016. He said no… again. He finally threw his hat in the ring in 2020...and promptly made people wonder why people had spent 12 years hyping up Bloomberg in the first place.

Head-scratching attempts at bipartisanship
Bloomberg seemingly cannot make up his mind any more than he can make up his mind about which political party he is a member of. His mayoralty saw a list of policies arguably more diverse than the demographics of the city he was mayor of:


 * On the liberal side, he's pro-choice, opposes the death penalty, supports stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and gun control, didn't suck up to the Park51 hysteria, is staunchly pro-immigration reform and drastically expanded funding on education, global warming mitigation, and affordable housing. Balanced budgets were achieved by a series of tax increases, something even many Democrats can't do. He also made a big push for public health, to the point of trying to ban large soda containers from restaurants — something that has earned him no end of ribbing from the likes of Jon Stewart. Supported Obama in 2012 and Clinton in 2016.
 * On the conservative side, he is staunchly anti-union, advocated for Dubya's re-election in 2004 and the extension of the PATRIOT Act, whined about the end of the Iraq War, backpedalled on ending the War on Drugs. He was also a massive proponent of Stop and Frisk policy during his time as mayor.

This mixing of left and right-wing politics gets more confusing in regards to economics (i.e., defending welfare and fiscal moderacy at a Tory conference despite his cozying up to certain embarrassing financial institutions and opposing an early version of the Zadroga Bill because "there's no free lunch" ). Basically, WTFs all round, and in the post-recession era, his opinion polling took some hits.

In short, he is an avatar of the centrist business wing of the Democratic Party. He's a former Republican who was put off by his party's embrace of religious conservatism and populist nationalism long before it was cool, but while he agrees with the Democrats on social issues and the need to combat climate change, he distrusts the party's economic justice wing and resists more progressive climate polices.

Occupy Wall Street
Long story short, Bloomberg is a bit of a dick who thought he had his own personal "army." He cracked down on the protesters rather violently, to the point where the cops in New York City set up a surveillance system meant to gather information on the protesters and shared what they gathered with banks.

2020 Presidential campaign
On November 24, 2019, Bloomberg announced his campaign for the 2020 presidential election.

During the 2020 Democratic Presidential Campaign, racist and sexist comments that he made in the past resurfaced in mid-February, 2020. He has also infamously referred to transgender individuals as "some guy in a dress" and referred to them as an "it." Though there was some hype about him replacing Biden as the chief centrist candidate or "buying the nomination," his inability to shake the notion he was an entitled billionaire who entered the race because the progressives who would raise his taxes had a decent chance at winning left him very unpopular, and he was thus decimated on Super Tuesday after a series of weak debate performances.

After having spent $500 million on his campaign in hopes for a blowout performance on Super Tuesday, he only ended up winning in American Samoa. On March 4, 2020, Mike dropped out of the presidential race.

Plagiarism
In February 2020, a report from the Intercept found that Bloomberg had plagiarized much of his platform from numerous research publications, media outlets and nonprofit groups, including CBS, CNN, Time and the American Medical Association.