Kevin O’Leary has long been compared to Donald Trump.
The Canadian businessmen co-founded SoftKey Software Products, and became a multimillionaire when the company was acquired by the toy giant Mattel.
Then, like Trump, he parlayed the profile his business success brought him into a career on television, first appearing on the Canadian venture capitalist show “Dragons' Den,” (which is part of a reality show franchise that’s been popular around the world) in 2006 before eventually appearing on “Shark Tank,” the American version of “Dragon’s Den.”
On television, O’Leary adopted the persona of a blunt, brutally honest, egotistical mogul who would often tell contestants to stop crying. His reputation for being arguably too mean earned him the nickname “Mr. Wonderful.”
And like Trump, O’Leary tried to transition his business and television fame into the political world.
In 2017, he campaigned to be the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He did well for himself for a while but eventually dropped out one month before the election, due to a lack of support.
But there’s several ways in which O’Leary and Trump differ, and one of the main ones is that while Trump is famously loathe to ever say a bad word about Russian President Vladimir Putin and has only offered half-hearted condemnations of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, O’Leary isn’t shy about making his distaste for Putin known.
What Did Mr. Wonderful Say About Putin?
On his Twitter account on Friday, O’Leary let his feelings about Putin be known, calling him a scumbag and hoping he gets struck by lightning.
This isn’t the first time O’Leary has used his Twitter account to mock Putin. Previously, he’s indicated that if Putin were a stock, he wouldn't be a hot one.
But Twitter isn’t where O’Leary seems to share his spiciest takes.
On his YouTube channel (for which he’s really embraced the Mr. Wonderful persona), O’ Leary recently opined about the recession’s effects on Russia, and how the invasion is going to play out for Putin.
“It’s very difficult because obviously, Putin is unpredictable, everybody understands that,” he says on the video while wearing an unusual combination of a suit jacket and white shorts, before commenting on how unprecedented it was for the famously neutral Swiss government to shut down the accounts of Russian oligarchs, depriving them of access to their wealth.
“That has never happened before,” before adding “my guess is that Putin is going to have a hunting accident. He has turned aside all the support he has internally. Some way, somehow, he’ll probably drink radioactive tea.”
And, while nobody expects O'Leary to pull his punches, his assessment here is truly blunt. This is, however, a man who has made his reputation on focusing on money, not emotion. That may give him special insight into what Russia's financially crippled oligarchs might be thinking.
