‘Shark Tank’ Guest Judge Chris Sacca Has Strong Opinions On Donald Trump

Maybe Donald Trump should think twice about asking Lowercase Capital chairman Chris Sacca to be his running mate. Not that the Shark Tank guest judge was ever in the running, but Sacca’s comments at a recent event would seem to preclude any possibility that the early investor in companies such as Uber and Twitter would join the Republican ticket.

According to Inc., Sacca made several scathing comments about the presumptive Republican nominee during an appearance at Inc.’s GrowCo conference in Las Vegas this month. The tech billionaire questioned Trump’s worth, his business savvy, and his proposed immigration policies. Later in the piece, Inc. reported that Sacca is a Hillary Clinton supporter.

“One, if he took the money he borrowed and invested it in index funds he’d have more money today. Two, he doesn’t have that much money. He doesn’t give any money to charity. In fact he stiffed the veterans for three of the $6 million he promised [them].

“He ascribes $3 to $4 billion to the value of his name. Are you f****** serious? Like, he’s not Justin Bieber.

“We have a guy who is going to shut down immigration, the resource we need to build our companies right now.”

His comments came just as his Shark Tank colleague, Mark Cuban, expressed some concern about Trump and his candidacy. Cuban’s remarks were more measured, however, with the Dallas Mavericks owner having in the past called Trump a friend. Both Cuban and Sacca said Wall Street would react negatively to a Trump presidency, creating market instability.

According to his Lowercase Capital bio, Sacca was an adviser to President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and continued to work for the Obama administration on technology issues. Before starting Lowercase Capital, he was a Silicon Valley lawyer and high-ranking employee at Google.

I’m back on @ABCSharkTank next season for, officially speaking, “a bunch more episodes.” https://t.co/3PqMNVQHiV pic.twitter.com/V1BsGDufrc

— Chris Sacca (@sacca) May 10, 2016

Chris Sacca made news on the gossip pages in May with reports he threw a “tantrum,” in the words of the New York Post, when he and his wife were denied entrance to the coveted play Hamilton. According to Business Insider, Sacca responded to the reports on Twitter by saying that he did not blame staff for the incident. He also claimed the tickets at issue, which turned out to be counterfeit, were not his — they had been purchased through the online seller StubHub.

Sacca has worked extensively for a Democrat president and had harsh words for the presumptive Republican nominee, but he is not adverse to eccentricity in business. In fact, according to Inc., he told the Collision Conference in New Orleans in April that entrepreneurs should be a bit different than other people because the journey they undertake is unlike anything else.

“You have to be a little obsessive. You probably have some personal issues that make you different. You may have trouble relating to other human beings. You don’t accept failure very well. Maybe you’re a little manic-depressive. If none of those things sound familiar, you should think about doing something else.”

Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca both spoke about the fact that their preschools needed software like brightwheel. https://t.co/F4LLXS6U8s

— Damarqio K. Williams (@officialdkw) May 21, 2016

During his guest spots on Shark Tank, Sacca has made a few notable deals including Brightwheel, a system to help preschool administrators and for parents to keep tabs on their children throughout the day. Sacca and Cuban partnered to invest $600,000 in the company at a $9 million valuation. Sacca told Business Insider that although negotiating the Brightwheel deal incited a competition between himself and Cuban, the two investors have a long friendship. Part of the reason Sacca agreed to guest star on Shark Tank was to keep Cuban in check — in a good-natured way.

“There is no doubt he adds an incredible amount of value to his companies. But I’m there to make sure he doesn’t get a free ride anymore.”

Reruns of Shark Tank air Friday nights on ABC and weeknights on CNBC.

[Photo by Alison Buck/Getty Images]