McLEAN, Va. — Michael Bloomberg came to Virginia on Friday to deliver a message to Democrats: I told you so.

The former New York City mayor delivered his most scathing remarks about Trump since he called then-candidate Donald Trump a “dangerous demagogue” and knocked his business credentials in a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.


“I said then that he was just not suited,” Bloomberg said Friday morning in a speech at the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia event. “He did not have the skills, the temperament, the work ethic to be president of the United States.”

Though both are New York billionaires, Bloomberg said he knew Trump in their former lives only “casually" through interactions at ceremonial events. He assailed the former real estate mogul for what he called “a complete failure of presidential leadership" and "totally incompetent management" as some federal agencies remain shuttered amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The government has been partially shut down for more than a month as Trump and Democrats spar over billions of dollars for his border wall.

“The whole episode really is a cynical, political stunt, and, unfortunately, we’re the ones paying the price,” Bloomberg said. “You’ve gotten exactly what I described: This is a person who should not be the president of the United States, and I think we have to get serious. He is way in over his head.”

Bloomberg dismissed America’s executive-in-chief as a “real estate promoter who’s never run a large organization before” and “lost big on a bunch of bets” after inheriting his fortune from his father.


And as he continues to mull whether he will seek the Democratic nomination for president, Bloomberg touted his credentials for the job.

“We’ve gotta do something to make sure we get somebody different in the White House two years from now, and I’m committed to do that,” he said. “This is about competence — or the lack of it. The presidency is not an entry-level job, and the longer we have a pretend CEO who is recklessly running this country, the worse it’s gonna be for our economy and for our security. This is really dangerous.”

He likened Trump and his administration to a horror movie: “But instead of Freddy Krueger in the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ we’ve got Donald Trump and the nightmare on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

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He also advised voters to reject Trump in the next election in terms he understands: You’re fired. He asked attendees who in the room would hire Trump to run their business and noted that in the private sector, businesses have boards that try to help leaders before taking a more severe step.


“If you can’t help them, you move them out, you fire them,” he said. “And so that’s what we’ve gotta do. And for two years a number of honorable people have tried to help the president, only to leave in frustration.”

The antidote to Trump and the gridlock in Washington, Bloomberg suggested, is a pragmatic, experienced executive who can reach across the aisle. He acknowledged his own qualifications, which largely stems from his 12 years in City Hall, an executive role he said involved foreign policy and international affairs as the site of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the city with the largest number of embassies in the nation.

“We’ve gotta make sure that we offer real alternatives for 2020 — candidates that can do the work, that have training, have experience in delivering services rather than just going to rallies and giving speeches, the people that know how to manage,” he said. “These jobs — whether it’s president or governor or mayor — those are executive jobs. … And we’ve gotta make sure we put up candidates that do that.”

He joked about his rationale for visiting early states — going to Iowa because of climate change and New Hampshire because he has a home there — but acknowledged that he’s thinking about taking a shot at the White House.

“It would be great to be president of the United States, but you’ve gotta take a look at comparing that to what you can do in the private sector,” he said. “You gotta take a look at the possibilities of getting elected. You’ve gotta look at your family and your private life and your company that gets disrupted and changed around. And I’ve got a pretty good life. Having said that, I don’t like walking away from challenges.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who attended the breakfast, told POLITICO he was struck by Bloomberg’s “matter-of-fact” observations and would like to see him run to expand the party’s choices.

“I think he brings enormous credentials and experience and authority to a possible presidential run,” said Connolly. “The real question, though, is given sort of where our party has shifted, is that something that can excite the base and can he inspire with that managerial-first approach?”