87-Year-Old Billionaire Endorses Trump: “Just in Case It’s a Mistake, I’ll Be Gone.”

“I’m ready to take a chance on it.”

Jim Urquhart/Reuters/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Of all the reasons to endorse Donald Trump for president, betting on one’s own imminent death in case all the most dire predictions of a Trump presidency come true may be the worst. Nevertheless, that appears to be at least part of the so-called reasoning behind 87-year-old oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ announcement on Wednesday that he was backing the real estate magnate.

“I’m ready to take a chance on it,” Pickens said at the SALT economic conference in Las Vegas. “And just in case it’s a mistake, [I’ll] be gone.”

The billionaire, who previously supported Trump’s rivals Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina, declined to offer an alternative for the hundreds of millions, and future generations, of Americans who will outlive him.

At the same conference, Pickens also said that he approved of Trump’s call to bar all Muslims from entering the country, at least temporarily, until “we can vet these people.” His support for the ban came on the same day Trump made his first comments walking back the controversial plan, calling it “just a suggestion.”

“Yes, I’m for Donald Trump,” Pickens said. “I’m tired of having politicians as president of the U.S. Let’s try something different.”

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate