Bloomberg says America should 'get behind' Trump because 'the public has spoken'
"He's our president, and we need this country to be run well," Bloomberg said.
— -- Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said America should "get behind" President Trump because "the public has spoken, whether you like the results or not," during an appearance on ABC's "The View."
Bloomberg said that opposing a president just because of one's alignment with another party is the wrong approach. He referred to a 2010 interview with The National Journal in which Mitch McConnell, at the time the Senate minority leader, said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
"That's my country. That's my kids and grandkids," Bloomberg said of his reaction to McConnell's statement. "You have to make it work. We have an election — whoever wins, you got to get behind."
"He's our president, and we need this country to be run well. I didn't vote for him," Bloomberg added. "Let's just all hope that Donald Trump is a good president of the United States."
Also a businessman and philanthropist, Bloomberg said Americans should direct their energy toward changing the outcome of the next election rather than fighting the current administration.
He said people in other countries "try to tear down the government and have a revolution" when their candidate doesn't win but Americans should be more strategic.
"We should sit back and say, four years from now, how do I get my woman or man elected? And that's very different," he said.
But Bloomberg said people should still fight policies they don't agree with.
"You can protest. You can elect other officials, write letters, make phone calls," he said. "But in the end, the public has spoken, whether you like the results or not."
Bloomberg joked that Trump had "a little help from the Russians" in the 2016 election.
As for whether the result of Tuesday's special election in Georgia has serious implications for the future of the Democratic Party, Bloomberg warned people not to read too much into it.
But he said "one thing" the congressional race, won by Republican Karen Handel, showed was that "all the money in the world can't buy an election."
"The public is a lot smarter than people give them credit for," Bloomberg said.
In the end, he said, it was Trump's "Make America great again" message that resonated with voters.
"I don't know what the 'again' means," Bloomberg added. "We're better today than we have ever been. Still, that's the key."