Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman thinks President Biden should call it quits after one term, saying that the 80-year-old is past his “peak.”
“I think Biden’s done a lot of good things. But I think his legacy will not be a good one if he is the nominee,” Ackman, the head of Pershing Square Capital Management, told Bloomberg News.
“I do think the right thing for Biden to do is to step aside, and to say he’s not going to run, and create the opportunity for some competition.”
Ackman, whose net worth is valued by Bloomberg at $2.3 billion, said that a president needed to be “at [their] intellectual best.”
“And I don’t think Biden is there,” he said.
Ackman isn’t the only Wall Street titan who is mulling alternatives to the incumbent.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said on Wednesday that liberal Democrats should pitch in and help former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign.
Biden, who has made several public gaffes and was photographed falling and losing his balance on numerous occasions, has faced questions about his mental acuity, stamina and ability to withstand the rigors of the job.
Despite the apparent signs of slippage, Biden intends on being the Democratic nominee.
Recent polls, however, show Biden trailing former President Donald Trump.
Ackman had good things to say about Biden’s long-shot Democratic challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips, the 54-year-old lawmaker who won a tightly contested swing district in Minnesota.
The 57-year-old Ackman said he was “impressed” by Phillips, who has also called on Biden to step aside.
Ackman, who has donated to Democrats in the past, added that he was “much more open to Republican candidates” — mentioning Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as alternatives.
The billionaire investor was not impressed with insurgent candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech mogul who has taken a more isolationist stance than traditional GOP hopefuls.
“He’s just been a little too far off to the right,” Ackman said of Ramaswamy. “I’ve been disappointed a bit with his geopolitics.”
Ackman said he would consider running for office himself if the public wanted it.
“If the country wanted me at some point, you know, I would be open to it,” Ackman told Bloomberg.
“It’s something where the country would have to ask me as opposed to me putting myself out there.”