Mark Cuban Says He’d Run For President As A Republican In 2028

Mark Cuban has spent years taking shots at President Trump and backing Democrats.

Now the billionaire businessman says that if he ever runs for president, he would do it as a Republican.

And the reason he gave tells you plenty about what is happening inside the Democratic Party.

Mark Cuban Says If He Ran for President in 2028, It Would Be As a Republican

“That's what I would do. I can't win as a Democrat, not with the DSA and all that sh** there.” pic.twitter.com/yM50139Wxx

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 22, 2026

Cuban looks at the Republican lane

Cuban made the comments during an appearance on Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway’s Pivot podcast.

The August 21 episode of Pivot ranged from Cuban’s campaign against inflated prescription-drug prices to California’s proposed billionaire tax and the exploding value of professional sports franchises.

Near the end, Swisher steered the conversation toward 2028 and asked whether Cuban still thinks about running. Cuban said the competition appeals to him, but the actual work of governing does not.

Pressed on what kind of campaign he could mount, Cuban said the Democratic nomination was not realistic for him because of the Democratic Socialists of America faction’s influence inside the party. His hypothetical route would therefore be through the Republican primary.

Swisher immediately joked that Vice President J.D. Vance would not be thrilled by the prospect.

Cuban laughed, then continued to stress that this was about the thrill of a race—not a declaration that he was preparing to enter one.

That is quite a turn for a man who campaigned aggressively against President Trump and endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024.

Mark Cuban says if he ran for President then he would do so as a Republican.

Same dude who has endorsed left wing extremists including Kamala Harris last election.

No thanks Mark. You’re a Democrat. Run as such. https://t.co/hRKf4m4zLF pic.twitter.com/FhrJG2BxAE

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) August 22, 2026

A real campaign—or just Mark Cuban being Mark Cuban?

There is a big difference between enjoying the competition and actually launching a presidential campaign.

Only four months ago, Cuban flatly dismissed the idea.

Fox News reported in April that Cuban had flatly rejected a presidential bid during an appearance on Fox & Friends. He said changing the economics of American healthcare mattered more to him than holding political office.

Cuban pointed to Cost Plus Drugs, the company he co-founded to sell medications with transparent pricing, as the vehicle through which he believed he could make that impact. He also described the company’s work with the Trump administration’s TrumpRx effort to connect Americans with lower-cost prescriptions.

That recent interview matters because it puts the new remarks in perspective: Cuban has described a lane he might use if he changed his mind, not a campaign he is currently building.

He is not making a clean break with Democrats, either. During the same Pivot conversation, Cuban praised Texas Democrat James Talarico, whom he has backed in the state’s Senate race.

Mark Cuban has not announced a Republican campaign for president. What he did was identify the GOP as his only plausible route if the competitive itch ever becomes strong enough to pull him into the race.

He looked at the Democratic Party’s socialist wing and concluded that path was closed.

That alone is a remarkable indictment of where the Democrats have gone.