Billionaire investor Bill Ackman called for a “complete reboot” of the Democratic Party, insisting that many of its officials must “resign in disgrace.”
Ackman, founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, made the sharp remarks during a recent interview with Jonathan Boyar on The World According to Boyar podcast.
.@BillAckman: Democrats Need ‘Complete Reboot,’ Many Must ‘Resign in Disgrace’
“The Democratic Party needs a complete reboot. The problem is that leadership and people in power generally don’t like to give up power, but this is a case where a lot of people need to resign in… pic.twitter.com/tt6vP3IgnW
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 6, 2025
“They really put themselves in a hole. Democratic Party needs a complete reboot,” Ackman said bluntly when asked about the poor state of the party. “The problem is that leadership and people in power generally don’t like to give up power. But this is a case where a lot of people need to resign in disgrace. Party needs a complete reboot. They continue to double down on all of the mistakes and policies that were made before.”
“If I were a member of the Democratic Party, the leadership, I would be saying we love this effort to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in our government. DOJ is great,” the Wall Street titan added. We just want to make sure there are some checks and balances. Please keep us informed as opposed to marching and opposing and telling staff members not to respond to emails, stuff like that. That’s just sort of one of many. I don’t think of myself ever really as a member of a party. I don’t think of myself as a member of the Republican Party. I have had to check a box in order to vote in New York City on occasion. I’ve always been kind of a centrist.”
“The Democratic Party has not done itself a service in the last four years and probably longer than that. In terms of the best candidates,” he concluded.
Ackman broke with the Democrats in the 2024 election by endorsing President Donald Trump and has since expressed optimism about the U.S. economy under the new Republican administration.
“I’m very bullish on America. I’m kind of bearish on Europe,” the hedge fund manager recently told CNBC. “And I think they need to make some fairly dramatic changes politically and otherwise. One of the more powerful charts, look at the market cap of companies, the number of companies above $500 billion or whatever here versus Europe.”
“I would say I’m more optimistic about the economy and the country than I have been in a long time,” he added.
Ackman’s criticism of the Democrats aligns with growing voter dissatisfaction, as many within the party hold it in low esteem.
A plurality of voters (40%) believe the Democratic Party has no clear strategy for countering Trump, according to a survey by the liberal firm Blueprint, first reported by POLITICO. Another 24% said the party does have an ineffective plan.
“Voters correctly identified that the Democratic Party has lost its way,” said pollster Evan Roth Smith. “The Democratic response [Tuesday] night was more or less a continuation of what we’ve seen from Democrats so far. Which is, there was nothing overtly wrong about it, but it didn’t actually do anything to ameliorate this core issue Democrats face, which is voters aren’t quite sure what we stand for and would like us to get back to the basic principles of the party.”
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