Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist running for the Democratic presidential nomination, on Friday promised to intimidate big corporations — including energy and financial institutions — into cooperating with his plans to stop climate change.

“This is going to be a fight,” the former investor said. “And we need to scare them.”

Steyer made his comments Friday during a discussion with about two dozen activists, who mostly focused on climate and renewable energy, in downtown Denver.

The Californian, who earlier had ruled out a bid for the White House only to change his mind in July, is one of about two dozen candidates running for the Democratic nomination. Steyer is perhaps best known for leading the charge to impeach President Donald Trump. He is also a founder of NextGen, a nationwide political nonprofit focused on registering young people to vote.

Steyer’s cornerstone campaign promises are to reform the nation’s democracy, which includes the prohibition of corporate influence on policy, and halt climate change.

Steyer told the two dozen individuals gathered at The Alliance Center, a nonprofit work-sharing space in a converted warehouse, that he believes if the country can fix those two problems, we will be in better shape than any nation in history.

During the nearly 90-minute meeting, Steyer echoed many of his peers in the race on gun control, health care and immigration. And in most instances, he connected those topics back to what he sees as the fundamental problem in the country: outsized influence by corporations in government.

“We have a broken government,” he said. “Corporations have bought the government.”

He also took direct aim at President Donald Trump on numerous occasions.

“He’s a fake! He’s a fake business person,” Steyer said. “I think he’s a criminal. … He’s also an incompetent boob.”

Attendees were skeptical about Steyer, who has yet to qualify for the next round of presidential debates that start in September, and his ability to win the election.

When he was questioned on how he’d win in places such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the billionaire rattled off a list of electoral victories he has helped finance, including raising the tobacco tax in California, helping Virginia Democrats win more seats in the state legislature, and helping California Democrats win seven GOP-held House seats in 2018.

The self-identified “Washington outsider” said the last thing he’s worried about is the horse race.

“I know we know how to run a campaign,” he said.

Suzanne Spiegel, the development director for the anti-fracking political nonprofit Colorado Rising, said after the event that she wasn’t convinced to vote for Steyer. But, she said, he’s on her radar now.

“It’s refreshing to hear a candidate talk about climate change,” she said. “We’ve become used to such a low standard with President Trump, who doesn’t live in reality and who isn’t addressing climate change. Right now, I want to see who is going to be the most courageous on climate change.”

James Corbett, a bioethicist, left underwhelmed.

“He didn’t give me much reason to be less skeptical of him,” he said. “We’re in the era of billionaire candidates. We know that the game has changed and you have to have a lot of money to run, which is sad. It’s troubling. How can a billionaire have empathy for the underserved?”