Howard Schultz Wants 'Billionaire' Rephrased As 'People Of Means', Twitter Users React

Former CEO and chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, who has an estimated net worth of $3 billion and recently announced his bid for the 2020 presidential race, said he took issue with the word “billionaire” and all the connotations that it implied – a comment that was heavily ridiculed by social media users.

The comment was made by Schultz in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in January. A video clip of the interview was uploaded on Twitter by Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid on Monday. When program host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him if billionaires have too much power in American public life, the businessman paused before giving an answer.

“You know the moniker ‘billionaire’ has become the catchphrase,” Schultz said. “I would rephrase that and I would say that ‘people of means’ have been able to leverage their wealth and their interest in ways that are unfair and I think that speaks to the inequality. But it also directly speaks to the special interests that are paid for by people of wealth and corporations which are looking for influence and they have such unbelievable influence on the politicians who are steeped in the ideology of both parties.”

He also stressed on why people should vote for him in 2020. “And once again I go back to this, if I should run for president, I am not in bed with any party, I am not in bed with any special interest, all I am trying to do is one thing, walk in the shoes of the American people,” he said.

Sorkin put out an open invite to the public to send in questions for Schultz to answer before the interview. This particular question was sent in by former New York Times writer and the author of the book “Winner Takes All,” Anand Giridharadas.

The brief clip of the interview went viral, with people coming up with all forms of memes and GIFs to mock Schultz’s aversion to the word “billionaire.”

Meanwhile, Change Research, which conducted a poll on Schultz’s potential to become the next president of the United States, found that he currently holds a 4 percent favorable rating among the public. He was most hated by Democrats (50 percent unfavorable), followed by Republicans (43 percent unfavorable) and independents (31 percent unfavorable). Also, 56 percent of the public had no idea who Schultz was.

Consequently, the poll also suggested that Schultz’s unfavorable image among the public would not only cause him to lose the election but would also help Trump be reelected for a second term.

To disprove the findings of the poll, Schultz released his own internal polling data. While the data predicted he would pull 17 percent of the national vote if he ran against the likes of Trump and either Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren, it also showed that Trump beating both the Democrats 33 to 32 percent, which corroborated the findings of the Change Research poll.