PHOENIX — Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said Saturday while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris that he would campaign against her if he thought she would tax wealthy people’s “unrealized gains,” which is part of the tax plan she has endorsed.
The comments came at a town hall event attended by local Arizona entrepreneurs, which Cuban headlined as a surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign. Toward the end of the event, a man asked Cuban, “Quick question: What about unrealized gains?”
Cuban assured the audience that Harris wouldn’t tax unrealized gains.
“I’m glad you asked that. So some people think that there’s going to be an unrealized gains tax on capital gains,” said Cuban, adding: “There is not, there is not.”
In August, Harris endorsed tax increases proposed by President Joe Biden in his fiscal year 2025 budget. One of the proposals is a 25% minimum tax on total income exceeding $100 million, including so-called “unrealized gains,” or growth in assets that haven’t been sold.
“When I saw that, I went ballistic because that’s an economy killer. Kamala knows that,” said Cuban. “You haven’t heard her talk about it,” Cuban added.
That is true: While Harris’ campaign issued a blanket endorsement of Biden’s 2025 budget proposal, it hasn’t actually spoken specifically about taxing unrealized gains. The idea has become a lightning rod for former President Donald Trump.
“Do you know what an unrealized capital gain is?” said Trump during a campaign event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. “I’ll tell you what it is. It’s communism is what,” he said.
“She refuses to say that, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ She refuses,” Trump added in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
NBC News contacted the Harris-Walz campaign for clarification on the vice president’s stance on taxing unrealized gains. The campaign declined to comment.
Back in Arizona, Cuban assured his audience, “You’re not going to see a tax on capital gains.”
“If I’m wrong, she’s going to hate to hear that, I’ll work so she doesn’t get elected again. Because that’s how wrong I think that is, but I already know it’s not going to happen. So I just like to say that to sound dramatic,” he added, prompting laughter from the crowd.
Harris’ endorsement of Biden’s budget in August fits into a larger theme of loyalty to the current commander in chief. In an exclusive interview with NBC News on Friday, Harris was asked to identify one policy she would have done differently from Biden over the last three and a half years.
“To be very candid with you, even including Mike Pence, vice presidents are not critical of their presidents. I think that really, actually, in terms of the tradition of it, and also just going forward, it does not make for a productive and important relationship,” Harris said.
It’s not the first time Cuban has spoken about the taxation of unrealized gains. Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in September, Cuban said, “Every conversation I’ve had is that it’s not going to happen” — though in both the CNBC interview and on Saturday, Cuban said he doesn’t speak for Harris or the campaign.
Cuban has become a draw as a surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign, which typically deploys Democratic politicians who stick to sanitized talking points. On the Biden-Harris immigration policies, Cuban said on Saturday, “They screwed up on immigration,” before delving into how Trump’s mass deportation plan would impact small businesses.
On Oct. 12, the Harris-Walz campaign deployed famous actor Bryan Cranston to stump in Arizona. Cranston also strayed away from the usual Democratic talking points for a moment in his speech.
“I will say this, and the campaign didn’t, didn’t know what I was going to say,” said the star from the hit TV show “Breaking Bad.” “It is much more important for you to vote than who it is you are going to vote for.”
