Trump has told us how he'll attack Harris
For anyone other than those of a certain age, political earthquakes like the one felt this past weekend belong only to history. In March 1968, an embattled President Lyndon Johnson, saddled with the unpopular Vietnam War and the recent Tet offensive disaster, shocked the nation at the very end of a lengthy televised address by declaring that he wouldn't seek the Democratic Party's nomination. Johnson's departure set off months of disarray and hotly contested primaries within the party, ultimately leading to its defeat in the election to Republican Richard Nixon.
It's a testament to our times that a lot of this year's political action was seemingly condensed into just the past few weeks, and that much of it has transpired over social media. On Sunday, about 1:45 p.m. East Coast time, President Joe Biden posted a letter on the platform currently known as X, declaring that "while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down."
About 30 minutes later, he posted a photograph of himself walking outside the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris and wrote: "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."
Biden and Harris campaigning in May in Philadelphia. Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Although the announcement was widely expected ever since Biden's maundering debate performance last month, it nonetheless threw the political and news media establishment into a frenzy and occasioned the exchange of countless text messages around the world, all with some variation of the sentiment: Now what?
As my colleague Joshua Green wrote on Sunday in the Washington Edition newsletter, Harris represents the path of least resistance for the Democrats. She's a nationally known political brand with access to the Biden-Harris campaign's sizable war chest, "even if many Democrats harbor serious doubts about her political talent and ability to win."
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has also been anticipating these latest developments. On July 4, the Daily Beast posted a leaked video of Trump on a golf course, getting asked about fallout from the debate. Trump, sitting in a golf cart alongside his son Baron and using language more befitting the clubhouse than the campaign trail, called the president a "broken down pile of crap" and predicted Biden would drop out and lateral the nomination to Harris. "I think she's going to be better," he allowed, before adding, "She's so bad. She's so pathetic. She's so f------ bad."
That crude sentiment was at odds with his more careful phrasing in a follow-up phone call Trump conducted on July 9 with my colleagues Nancy Cook and Mario Parker, part of our August cover story and interview with the GOP nominee. They asked Trump how he would define Kamala Harris if Biden dropped out.
"I don't think it would make much difference. I see the same basic level of competence," Trump answered. "I would define her in a very similar matter that I define him."
Trump was then asked: What would Harris as the nominee mean for the US economy and businesses if she was the Democratic nominee?
"High taxes, tremendous border costs, don't forget—she was the border czar and she's never been there," Trump said. "Tremendous costs to the border in so many different ways including crime. Substantially higher taxes both to individuals and to businesses, especially small businesses. Also, I think if she were involved, she is a major threat to Social Security because the millions of people she would allow into our country—because that would continue under them—those millions of people would be absolutely destroying our system of helping people—Social Security, Medicare and other things."
Leaving aside the particulars of Trump's answer—Harris was never formally appointed as border czar and has indeed visited the border—his answer was relatively diplomatic, at least compared with his unguarded comments in the video. In his first campaign in 2016, Trump repeatedly veered into gendered attacks on Hillary Clinton ("If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5% of the vote," he once said). He'll be doubly challenged in the self-restraint department by Harris, who would be not only the second female nominee of a major party after Clinton but also the first Black woman and first Asian American.
Trump's proxies, official or not, are already patronizingly casting the former senator and California district attorney as a "DEI candidate." Whether Trump cares to temper himself enough to avoid that overtly racist and sexist line of attack, or whether he infuses it into the very fabric of his campaign, remains to be seen.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bloomberg's California bureau chief Karen Breslau wrote for the Businessweek Daily about Harris' much-commented-on cackle and how it's one of her sharpest political tools: Don't Underestimate Kamala Harris, or Her Laugh
Airbnb Hosts Strike Out on Their Own
Illustration: Hannah Robinson for Bloomberg Businessweek
This April, more than 600 landlords, real estate agents and small-property managers traveled to a swanky resort in San Diego to get advice from Jesse Vasquez. A former salesperson at a hospice care company, Vasquez now manages more than a dozen properties, in addition to his side hustle coaching his peers. The key, as he laid out in a stream-of-consciousness presentation on success in real estate, is reducing dependence on short-term rental platforms by increasing your ability to find renters on your own. "We don't have to be relying on Airbnb," Vasquez told his audience. "Don't allow these big companies to supply your clients. Build your own house on your own freakin' land."
Over the past 15 years or so, Airbnb Inc. has established a new market in short-term real estate rentals. The site, along with competitors such as Vrbo, made it easier for property owners to take on renters by helping travelers find alternatives to hotels and handling some of the transaction details. This was a boon for many property owners, who suddenly had a new income source to help pay off their mortgages or fund renovations. Airbnb, the world's biggest short-term rental platform, added more than a million active listings last year, while posting record profit. It has more than doubled its market value to $97 billion since its 2020 initial public offering.
But it's getting harder to be an Airbnb host, in the US at least. Through May of this year, earnings for US hosts had declined in 22 of the past 28 months, according to analytics firm AirDNA. Many markets have been saturated with short-term rentals, and demand for large vacation homes is weakening because travelers are again considering competitively priced hotels and overseas trips.
As Natalie Lung writes, the headwinds are inspiring hosts such as Vasquez and the people who attended his conference to try to cut out the middleman: Airbnb Hosts Want Guests to Come to Them Directly
How to Build a Celebrity Empire
Photographer: Tara Rice for Bloomberg Businessweek
A swarm of students waits in the classroom at Harvard Business School's McCollum Hall to take selfies with Anita Elberse. They've just finished her sought-after executive education course, and though a bunch of big names are among the most recent batch of grads—skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin, ex-Daily Show comedian Roy Wood Jr., FIFA World Cup winner Juan Mata—Elberse is evidently the bigger star on campus. "She's a very popular lady right now," says one student after angling for a shot.
Elberse, a Nike-wearing scholar of marketing, is best known for her course The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports—or #BEMS to its alumni who post about it on Instagram and LinkedIn. The four-day, $12,000 program, an elective open to professionals not enrolled at HBS, has become a blockbuster for the university. Elberse's case studies, ranging from David Beckham's brand management to Beyoncé's music launch strategies, are often announced like an album drop on social media. Which is why, along with execs from Hollywood and Madison Avenue, stars such as Channing Tatum and LL Cool J have signed up, hoping to build the next celebrity business empire.
It's a testament to our times that a lot of this year's political action was seemingly condensed into just the past few weeks, and that much of it has transpired over social media. On Sunday, about 1:45 p.m. East Coast time, President Joe Biden posted a letter on the platform currently known as X, declaring that "while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down."
About 30 minutes later, he posted a photograph of himself walking outside the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris and wrote: "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."
Although the announcement was widely expected ever since Biden's maundering debate performance last month, it nonetheless threw the political and news media establishment into a frenzy and occasioned the exchange of countless text messages around the world, all with some variation of the sentiment: Now what?
As my colleague Joshua Green wrote on Sunday in the Washington Edition newsletter, Harris represents the path of least resistance for the Democrats. She's a nationally known political brand with access to the Biden-Harris campaign's sizable war chest, "even if many Democrats harbor serious doubts about her political talent and ability to win."
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has also been anticipating these latest developments. On July 4, the Daily Beast posted a leaked video of Trump on a golf course, getting asked about fallout from the debate. Trump, sitting in a golf cart alongside his son Baron and using language more befitting the clubhouse than the campaign trail, called the president a "broken down pile of crap" and predicted Biden would drop out and lateral the nomination to Harris. "I think she's going to be better," he allowed, before adding, "She's so bad. She's so pathetic. She's so f------ bad."
That crude sentiment was at odds with his more careful phrasing in a follow-up phone call Trump conducted on July 9 with my colleagues Nancy Cook and Mario Parker, part of our August cover story and interview with the GOP nominee. They asked Trump how he would define Kamala Harris if Biden dropped out.
"I don't think it would make much difference. I see the same basic level of competence," Trump answered. "I would define her in a very similar matter that I define him."
Trump was then asked: What would Harris as the nominee mean for the US economy and businesses if she was the Democratic nominee?
"High taxes, tremendous border costs, don't forget—she was the border czar and she's never been there," Trump said. "Tremendous costs to the border in so many different ways including crime. Substantially higher taxes both to individuals and to businesses, especially small businesses. Also, I think if she were involved, she is a major threat to Social Security because the millions of people she would allow into our country—because that would continue under them—those millions of people would be absolutely destroying our system of helping people—Social Security, Medicare and other things."
Leaving aside the particulars of Trump's answer—Harris was never formally appointed as border czar and has indeed visited the border—his answer was relatively diplomatic, at least compared with his unguarded comments in the video. In his first campaign in 2016, Trump repeatedly veered into gendered attacks on Hillary Clinton ("If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5% of the vote," he once said). He'll be doubly challenged in the self-restraint department by Harris, who would be not only the second female nominee of a major party after Clinton but also the first Black woman and first Asian American.
Trump's proxies, official or not, are already patronizingly casting the former senator and California district attorney as a "DEI candidate." Whether Trump cares to temper himself enough to avoid that overtly racist and sexist line of attack, or whether he infuses it into the very fabric of his campaign, remains to be seen.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bloomberg's California bureau chief Karen Breslau wrote for the Businessweek Daily about Harris' much-commented-on cackle and how it's one of her sharpest political tools: Don't Underestimate Kamala Harris, or Her Laugh
Airbnb Hosts Strike Out on Their Own
This April, more than 600 landlords, real estate agents and small-property managers traveled to a swanky resort in San Diego to get advice from Jesse Vasquez. A former salesperson at a hospice care company, Vasquez now manages more than a dozen properties, in addition to his side hustle coaching his peers. The key, as he laid out in a stream-of-consciousness presentation on success in real estate, is reducing dependence on short-term rental platforms by increasing your ability to find renters on your own. "We don't have to be relying on Airbnb," Vasquez told his audience. "Don't allow these big companies to supply your clients. Build your own house on your own freakin' land."
Over the past 15 years or so, Airbnb Inc. has established a new market in short-term real estate rentals. The site, along with competitors such as Vrbo, made it easier for property owners to take on renters by helping travelers find alternatives to hotels and handling some of the transaction details. This was a boon for many property owners, who suddenly had a new income source to help pay off their mortgages or fund renovations. Airbnb, the world's biggest short-term rental platform, added more than a million active listings last year, while posting record profit. It has more than doubled its market value to $97 billion since its 2020 initial public offering.
But it's getting harder to be an Airbnb host, in the US at least. Through May of this year, earnings for US hosts had declined in 22 of the past 28 months, according to analytics firm AirDNA. Many markets have been saturated with short-term rentals, and demand for large vacation homes is weakening because travelers are again considering competitively priced hotels and overseas trips.
As Natalie Lung writes, the headwinds are inspiring hosts such as Vasquez and the people who attended his conference to try to cut out the middleman: Airbnb Hosts Want Guests to Come to Them Directly
How to Build a Celebrity Empire
A swarm of students waits in the classroom at Harvard Business School's McCollum Hall to take selfies with Anita Elberse. They've just finished her sought-after executive education course, and though a bunch of big names are among the most recent batch of grads—skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin, ex-Daily Show comedian Roy Wood Jr., FIFA World Cup winner Juan Mata—Elberse is evidently the bigger star on campus. "She's a very popular lady right now," says one student after angling for a shot.
Elberse, a Nike-wearing scholar of marketing, is best known for her course The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports—or #BEMS to its alumni who post about it on Instagram and LinkedIn. The four-day, $12,000 program, an elective open to professionals not enrolled at HBS, has become a blockbuster for the university. Elberse's case studies, ranging from David Beckham's brand management to Beyoncé's music launch strategies, are often announced like an album drop on social media. Which is why, along with execs from Hollywood and Madison Avenue, stars such as Channing Tatum and LL Cool J have signed up, hoping to build the next celebrity business empire.
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