Charles Gasparino
Business
Published November 4, 2023, 9:29 p.m. ET
“We were poorer than you can imagine,” Bernie Marcus said. “And my goal back then was to make $25,000 a year and provide for my family.” Photo credit: Charles Gasparino
I met Bernie Marcus, the great entrepreneur, philanthropist and free market advocate, last week at his spacious home in Boca Raton, Florida – and of course he wasted no time in letting me know how he really feels.
“I’m particularly pissed,” Marcus told me as we sat down. “I have a lot on my mind. This will be an interview.”
I told him I expected nothing less.
Marcus is best known as one of the founders of Home Depot, who partnered with financier Ken Langone and businessman Arthur Blank to create a company that employs nearly half a million people in thousands of stores across the country.
But the basics of the Home Depot story don’t do justice to Marcus’ legacy. He is a fast-talking billionaire and proud conservative activist who grew up in a fourth-floor rental apartment in Newark, New Jersey.
“We were poorer than you can imagine. And my goal back then was to make $25,000 a year and provide for my family.”
He did that and much more. With Home Depot, Marcus created a company that now has annual sales of $150 billion and assets in the double-digit billions – and earns a few billion himself. He has donated many millions of them to charities and politicians who he believes can help reverse the country’s trajectory into a near-socialist state.
Marcus retired from Home Depot in 2002, but that doesn’t mean he went to the beach anywhere. He fights the good fight and writes checks to elect free-market types to state and federal governments. A little more than a decade ago, he founded a free-market advocacy group, the Job Creators Network, which advocates for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
“Charlie, I’m 94 years old. Unfortunately, I have a 60-year-old brain, a 94-year-old body,” he said during our extensive interview, clearly concerned that he doesn’t have much time left to fight the good fight. “I told this to all my friends, anyone who would listen: If this election goes like the last one, this country will be a third world country.”
Marcus in 1998.Getty Images
Biden an “idiot”
He blames America’s woes on President Biden, who defeated Bernie’s friend Donald Trump in the 2020 election and will likely run against Trump in 2024. He calls Biden an “idiot” and says he is the “most divisive president we have ever seen.” Calling nearly half the country diehard MAGA Republicans was not a wise way to heal the country, a goal Biden said was a priority.
Perhaps worse, Marcus says, is Biden’s lack of intellectual acumen (“someone is feeding him like a puppet”), unprompted spending and policy mistakes that have led to inflation and an explosion in the federal debt.
As bad as Biden was, Marcus says he also has concerns about Trump. “Wages have increased. Minorities worked. “Inflation has been declining during the Trump presidency,” Marcus said. “But he can’t keep his mouth shut.” Good point. I address Trump’s damaging Twitter feed and his role in the riots on Capitol Hill on January 6th, whether he resigns and tells Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, both successful politicians, should be given a chance.
With Home Depot, Marcus created a company that today generates annual sales of $150 billion. Christopher Sadowski
As bad as Biden was, Marcus says he also has concerns about Trump. “Wages have increased. Minorities worked. “Inflation has been declining during the Trump presidency,” he said. “But he can’t keep his mouth shut. . . I fear that if he is elected, the first thing he will do is go after his enemies, starting with the Republicans.”
Good arguments. I address Trump’s damaging Twitter feed and his role in the riots on Capitol Hill on January 6th, whether he resigns and tells Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, both successful politicians, should be given a chance.
“I’m struggling with it now,” Marcus said, “I think [Trump] has the guidelines if he would just follow the script and do what he needs to do.”
Marcus brings me back to his story as he describes why America, despite all its problems, is worth fighting for. In 1978, Marcus had just been fired as CEO of a hardware store chain called Handy Dan. Unsure what to do, he spoke to Langone, the honest financier, about his future.
Langone advised Marcus (in a very Langone way) to pursue the entrepreneurial venture he had been thinking about – something called Home Depot. “Kenny said, ‘You just got hit in the ass with a golden horseshoe,'” and offered to “round up investors and bring me into the business.”
Home Depot was born and has grown into a company with a market value of $300 billion.
Handy Dan closed its doors more than 30 years ago.
Could Marcus start Home Depot today? It wasn’t easy back then; it would be almost impossible now, he said. “Regulations and all that woke crap” have made forming a public company nearly impossible. They not only have to satisfy shareholders, but also “stakeholders” and asset managers who force CEOs to adopt “woke management” metrics such as ESG.
“I ran a business for 60 years,” Marcus said. “I would never get involved in a social issue outside of business. That wasn’t my thing.”
But the American public is turning against left-wing economic policies. They hate Biden’s inflation and corporate vigilance, which gives Marcus hope for the future. He cited, no less, the efforts of Budweiser, which had used trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a beer ad.
“They were No. 1. . . and they became stupid overnight,” he said. “The American people remember; Your sales will remain low.”
And the American people, he says, are worth saving from what he believes is a very possible progressive apocalypse. “That’s why I spend a lot of my money at 94 to make sure we present the right faces,” they say.
Don’t stop, Bernie, don’t stop.
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