Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz hasn’t officially announced he’s running for president, but he’s already learning a sad truth about politics. When you have to ask people to clap at your scripted applause lines, expect some blowback. Schultz was speaking at Purdue University in Indiana on Thursday when he announced that he would release his tax returns if he decided to run for the nation’s highest office. Clearly, his pledge was meant to draw a sharp contrast with the current White House occupant, Donald Trump. Still, the crowd reaction wasn’t what he probably expected. The clip below shows he had to let the audience know it was OK to clap.

Billionaire Starbucks founder and presidential wannabe Howard Shultz just had his own pathetic "please clap" moment pic.twitter.com/HDEiBAPI2V — Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) February 7, 2019

Sadly for Schultz, history repeated itself a few moments later when he was discussing successful efforts by Purdue officials to keep in check the costs of an education at the school. “You gotta clap for that,” he said.

No one clapped for an applause line about the cost of education at Perdue so Howard Schultz prompted the audience to clap pic.twitter.com/wlLVFR5fyp — Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) February 7, 2019

The whole sad affair reminded many people of a moment in the 2016 presidential campaign when then-candidate Jeb Bush had to ask a crowd to “please clap.”

Howard Schultz is the new Jeb(!) Bush, pass it on! pic.twitter.com/62N2e29eLR — Q. 🏳️‍🌈♿️ (@Quiara) February 7, 2019

Bush, of course, went from being perceived as a leading contender for the Republican nomination in the ’16 campaign, only to be quickly dispatched by Trump. Continuing with the Bush comparison, some wondered why Schultz seemed so low energy in his speech, especially considering the business in which he made his fortune.

Hmm you'd think with so much access to coffee he wouldn't be so low energy.



[ schultz! ] pic.twitter.com/bmQe0t1rlW — Filthy Hippie (@droctopu5) February 7, 2019

Others theorized that the Schultz campaign ― which isn’t even official ― already has met the fate of Bush’s:

The speed at which campaigns go through their life cycle now is amazing. Schultz already at "Full Jeb" https://t.co/41fC4Kt1Lx — John Infanti (@Johnny_2Hats) February 7, 2019

@SteveSchmidtSES I feel like a please clap moment means ITS TIME TO CALL it QUITS — peepfish (@PeepFish) February 7, 2019

Some offered spending suggestions for Schultz:

Having thousands of millions to spend you would think that he could order up an applause sign. (Digital media currently available on Amazon Prime)... #sarcasm — Len M. (@Len_SCA) February 7, 2019

Some Twitter users did indeed clap for Schultz, but probably not in the way he ― or anyone ― would want: