Do we like them?

Do we like Michael Bloomberg?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Enormous climate, gun-safety and marriage-equality backing sits next to stop-and-frisk and his own words on trans people, so he lands in the middle-to-good zone.

Born in 1942 and raised in Medford, Massachusetts, in a modest Jewish middle-class family, Bloomberg got an MBA from Harvard and worked at Salomon Brothers. He co-founded Bloomberg LP in 1981, the financial data and media company that made him one of the richest people in America. Elected New York mayor in 2002 as a Republican, he served until 2013.

The big stain is stop-and-frisk. He expanded the tactic, which fell mostly on Black and Latino New Yorkers, and when a federal judge ruled in 2013 that it violated people’s rights he called it a “very dangerous decision” and vowed to appeal. In 2019, with a presidential run looming, he apologised at a Brooklyn church, saying “back then I was wrong.” Activist DeRay Mckesson said the apology was not accepted, and others questioned the timing.

On LGBTQ+ people, it’s a split screen. In 2011 he gave a strong speech pushing New York’s lawmakers to pass marriage equality, saying “it’s just none of government’s business who you love.” But a 2019 video, verified by NBC, showed him referring to transgender people as “it”, and in 2019 he also talked of “some guy wearing a dress.” His campaign said he was describing how others might see it, and the Human Rights Campaign said he should apologise.

On how he treats people, Advocate noted that dozens of people had accused him of discrimination and sexual harassment over the years. I couldn’t open the detailed reporting on how those claims ended, so treat them as accusations rather than findings. It’s a gap in what I could verify, not a clean bill of health.

The recent news is all money. In the last fortnight he reportedly put $16 million into House Majority PAC, $12 million into Everytown for Gun Safety for House races, and millions more into Democratic candidates for governor and Senate. That’s his right and his own act, and it fits a long habit of bankrolling gun control and Democratic causes.

The good stuff is real. He co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2006, the forerunner of Everytown. When Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement again in 2025, his foundation stepped in to keep the UN climate body funded, saying “we are ready to do it again.” He’s also pledged to give away most of his wealth.