The U.K.'s decision to leave the EU is the second most "stupidest" decision ever made by a country, only beaten by the U.S. voting for President Donald Trump, according to Michael Bloomberg.
"I did say that I thought it (Brexit) was the stupidest thing that a country has ever done — but then we trumped it," the media mogul said at a panel event in Boston two weeks ago, unearthed by the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.
"It is really hard to understand why a country that was doing so well wanted to ruin it," he added. "My former wife was a Brit, my daughters have British passports, so we love England – it's the father of our country, I suppose. But what they are doing is not good and there is no easy ways to get out of it because if they don't pay a penalty, everyone else would drop out. So they can't get as good of a deal as they had before," he said.
Bloomberg, who was in London Tuesday inaugurating new offices in the capital with a reported price of $1.3 billion, said that such an investment decision would probably have been different if he had foreseen the Brexit vote.
"We are opening a brand new European headquarters in London – two big, expensive buildings. Would I have done it if I knew they were going to drop out? I've had some thoughts that maybe I wouldn't have, but we are there, we are going to be very happy," he said in Boston.
Bloomberg noted that many of his U.S. and U.K.-based employees have informed him that they want to leave these locations because they feel both countries have become more closed-minded to immigration. Bloomberg reiterated his comments on Brexit and Trump at an event in France on Monday, the Guardian reported.
The 75-year-old former Big Apple mayor considered standing as a third-party candidate in the 2016 U.S. election but eventually ruled it out.
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