Cash of the titans: Michael Bloomberg is worth $26 billion more than Donald Trump

There has been speculation since August that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is mulling a run for the White House as an independent, billed by some journalists as an “attractive” choice for those confused or repelled by current presidential choices. The talk has intensified this week. Should he run, that means there will be two Manhattan billionaires in the race - Mr. Bloomberg and Republican front-runner Donald Trump. It would make an ironic cultural moment in the age of financial uncertainty.

But there is one clear reality: Mr. Bloomberg is worth $26 billion more than Mr. Trump. According to the Forbes magazine roster of the uber-rich, Mr. Trump is worth $4.6 billion - although he claims he has about $10 billion - and Mr. Bloomberg has $36.5 billion.

We’ve been here before. Mr. Bloomberg, now a 73-year-old bachelor, has surfaced as a presidential candidate 21 times since 2006, according to an Atlantic magazine analysis of the press coverage. But his candidacy would add a new dimension to presidential political theater.

“I would love to see Michael run. I would love the competition. I’d love to see what would happen. He’s the opposite of me in many ways — opposite on guns, opposite on numerous issues,” Mr. Trump told the New York Times shortly before hosting a rally on Saturday.

Mr. Bloomberg is certainly able to fund his own campaign, as Mr. Trump has done. But he is also has funded advocacy in the past, devoting $50 million to the aggressive Mayors Against Illegal Guns initiative, for example. The organization has since garnered the support of 1,000 current and former mayors who fight for “common-sense gun laws,” according to their mission statement.

Mr. Bloomberg is engaged in multiple causes, and spells out his take on various issues at an active website, MikeBloomberg.com

And like Mr. Trump, he has a well-heeled lifestyle, owning 14 homes around the globe, including a $26 million historic townhome on the banks of the Thames River in London, which he purchased only last summer. The British press declared the buy to be a signal that Mr. Bloomberg intended to run for mayor of London as a Conservative candidate. Meanwhile, Vanity Fair magazine once suggested that his lifestyle was one of “a 19th-century railroad baron.”

There’s some doubt that he’ll go for the White House on these shores.

“Bloomy is unlikely to throw his wallet in the ring. The main one is that he’s too smart to go on a fool’s errand,” says veteran new York Post columnist Michael Goodwin. “He won’t run if he can’t win, and anybody who sells him a vision of victory is suffering hallucinations or looking for a payday. Especially fanciful is the idea that he could run as an independent at this point and win the Electoral College.”