The billionaires who bet big on the NYC mayoral primary — and lost
New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is projected to become the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo had enjoyed the support of big names in business and finance as he sought to fend off Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has proposed a rent freeze and higher taxes on the city's wealthiest residents.
Most of them donated to Fix the City, an outside nonprofit group that spent money on pro-Cuomo and anti-Mamdani ads. The group has reported receiving nearly $25 million in contributions.
$8.3 million of that sum came from Michael Bloomberg, himself a former NYC mayor and the billionaire owner of Bloomberg LP.
"I also know his strengths as a leader and manager," Bloomberg said in a statement endorsing Cuomo. "Of all the candidates, Andrew has the skills our city needs to lead us forward."
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and William Lauder, the executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies, each gave $500,000 to the group. In the days leading up to the primary, Ackman wrote or reshared multiple posts on X that were critical of Mamdani.
Media mogul Barry Diller, Netflix chairman Reed Hastings, and billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb each donated $250,000.
Alice Walton, a billionaire philanthropist from the family that founded Walmart, contributed $100,000. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin gave $50,000 to Sensible City, a separate anti-Mamdani group.
Several of those same billionaires — including Ackman, Loeb, and Griffin — supported President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, a fact that Mamdani frequently emphasized on the campaign trail.
As of Wednesday, Mamdani leads with 43.5% of the vote, compared to Cuomo's 36.4%, with 93% of votes in. Because New York City uses a ranked-choice voting system, final results may take a week to determine, but Mamdani is expected to prevail. Cuomo conceded the primary Tuesday night.
Cuomo could still run as a third-party candidate in the general election in November, but it is unclear if he will. On Tuesday, he told supporters that he was still considering his next move.
Current mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent, while Curtis Sliwa is the Republican nominee. Jim Walden, an attorney, is also running as an independent.
If Cuomo decides not to run in the general election, the billionaires who previously backed his campaign could theoretically support another one of these candidates.
Adams's reelection prospects are in question after Trump's Justice Department moved to drop corruption charges against the mayor earlier this year.
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The Hill
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San Francisco Chronicle
11 minutes ago
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Trump says Japan will invest $550 billion in US at his direction. It may not be a sure thing
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is bragging that Japan has given him, as part of a new trade framework, $550 billion to invest in the United States. It's an astonishing figure, but still subject to negotiation and perhaps not the sure thing he's portraying. "Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit," Trump said Thursday. 'They put up, as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money.' He said 90% of any profits from the money invested would go to the U.S. even if Japan had put up the funds. 'It's not a loan or anything, it's a signing bonus,' the Republican president said, on the trade framework that lowered his threatened tariff from 25% to 15%, including on autos. A White House official said the terms are being negotiated and nothing has been formalized in writing. The official, who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks, suggested the goal was for the $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump's direction. The sum is significant: It would represent more than 10% of Japan's entire gross domestic product. The Japan External Trade Organization estimates that direct investment into the U.S. economy topped $780 billion in 2023. It is unclear the degree to which the $550 billion could represent new investment or flow into existing investment plans. What the trade framework announced Tuesday has achieved is a major talking point for the Trump administration. The president has claimed to have brought trillions of dollars in new investment into the U.S., though the impact of those commitments have yet to appear in the economic data for jobs, construction spending or manufacturing output. The framework also enabled Trump to say other countries are agreeing to have their goods taxed, even if some of the cost of those taxes are ultimately passed along to U.S. consumers. On the $550 billion, Japan's Cabinet Office said it involves the credit facility of state-affiliated financial institutions, such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Further details would be decided based on the progress of the investment deals. Japanese trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, upon returning to Japan, did not discuss the terms of the $550 billion investment. Akazawa said he believes a written joint statement is necessary, at least on working levels, to avoid differences. He is not thinking about a legally binding trade pact. The U.S. apparently released its version of the deal while Japanese officials were on their return flight home. 'If we find differences of understanding, we may have to point them out and say 'that's not what we discussed,'' Akazawa said. The U.S. administration said the fund would be invested in critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, computer chips and shipbuilding, among other industries. It has said Japan will also buy 100 airplanes from Boeing and rice from U.S. farmers as part of the framework, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said would be evaluated every three months. 'And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25% tariff rates, both on cars and the rest of their products. And I can tell you that I think at 25, especially in cars, the Japanese economy doesn't work,' Bessent told Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.' Akazawa denied that Bessent's quarterly review was part of the negotiations. 'In my past eight trips to the United States during which I held talks with the president and the ministers," Akazawa said. 'I have no recollection of discussing how we ensure the implementation of the latest agreement between Japan and the United States.' He said it would cause major disruptions to the economy and administrative processes if the rates first rise to 25% as scheduled on Aug. 1 and then drop to 15%. 'We definitely want to avoid that and I believe that is the understanding shared by the U.S. side,' he said. On buying U.S. rice, Japanese officials have said they have no plans to raise the current 770,000-ton 'minimum access' cap to import more from America. Agricultural Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan will decide whether to increase U.S. rice imports and that Japan is not committed to a fixed quota. 'Whatever Donald Trump wants to build, the Japanese will finance it for him,' Lutnick said Thursday on CNBC. 'Pretty amazing.' ___ Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
