SEATTLE — “Grande ego. Venti mistake”: That was the message protesters had for former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as he returned to his hometown of Seattle after announcing that he’s mulling an independent run for president.
Several dozen protesters gathered outside a downtown theater before Schultz appeared to promote his new book Thursday night. They included Democrats who fret his candidacy would hand President Donald Trump another term, and green-and-gold-bedecked basketball fans who haven’t forgiven him for selling the Seattle SuperSonics to a group that moved the team to Oklahoma City more than a decade ago.
“The way he dealt with the Sonics shows a huge fault in his character,” said Farheen Siddiqui, 25, who wore a team jersey to the protest.
Inside, though, he got a warmer reception, with hearty applause from a crowd of 1,100, especially when he apologized about the Sonics and described the health insurance and stock options he offered to Starbucks employees early on.
“I’m a fan of everything Howard’s done with Starbucks,” said Annie Peters, of Bellevue. “He obviously cares about people but has done a great job building the business as well. I’ve been waiting for someone like him to run.”
The 65-year-old billionaire and Democratic donor, who stepped down as Starbucks chairman last June, has been on a tour of talk shows and news interviews the past few days, coinciding with the release of his latest book, “From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America.”
He said he doesn’t intend to decide whether to run for president for several months, but the reaction from prominent Democrats has been swift. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the party chairwoman in Washington state, top advisers to former President Barack Obama and the most powerful political action committee in Democratic politics are among those who have criticized him, saying an independent bid would likely split the opposition to Trump and make his re-election more likely.
The protesters outside his talk Thursday chanted: “Pick a party.” Some carried signs decorated like Starbucks cups that read “Compost your campaign” and “Grande ego. Venti mistake” — a reference to the Italian names for drink sizes at the coffee chain.
Schultz promised the crowd, “I will do nothing on any level to proceed if I thought I would in any way persuade Americans to vote and re-elect Donald Trump.”
In Seattle, where 92 percent of voters cast ballots against Trump in 2016, helping get him re-elected might be even less popular than selling off a beloved sports franchise. Many in the audience applauded a heckler’s suggestion he run as a Democrat, and several also cheered ideas that Schultz was panning, such as drastically increased tax rates on the super-rich.
The crowd was more muted when Schultz explained away his voting record — he’s cast a ballot in just 11 of 38 state, federal and local elections since 2005, as The Seattle Times first reported. He said he has voted in every presidential election since he turned 18, but otherwise said he simply hasn’t been engaged in local politics.
