 | BY CALDER MCHUGH | | | 
Bill Ackman, CEO and founder of Pershing Square Capital, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 10, 2015. | Richard Drew/AP | TIP OF THE SPEAR — A tracking shot that’s a collision between the Goodfellas Copacabana scene and Spinal Tap lost backstage follows hedge fund manager Bill Ackman backstage, and we hear him in a voiceover. “This will be the most important presentation I’ve made in my career. So how’s that for raising expectations,” Ackman says. “What are we going to learn?” he’s asked. “You’re going to learn why Herbalife is going to collapse.” The dialogue is the opening to “Betting on Zero,” a 2016 documentary that came out in the midst of Ackman’s almost six-year campaign against Herbalife, a company he tried to prove was a pyramid scheme through perpetual public appearances, presentations and documentation. Ackman invested over $1 billion in his short position, but after other Wall Street bigwigs lined up on the other side and regulatory agencies didn’t act quickly or strongly enough for his taste, Ackman abandoned the unsuccessful investment by 2018. In his hedge fund Pershing Square’s 2021 annual report , Ackman swore off the practice of short selling in general, saying “we have retired from this line of work.” Well, sort of. Ackman is revving up his old tricks again, betting big on an uncertain outcome and relentlessly pursuing his quarry. Since Harvard President Claudine Gay, Penn President Elizabeth Magill and MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth testified on antisemitism on their campuses in front of Congress on Dec. 5 — a disastrous joint appearance that was almost universally panned for its legalistic tone — Ackman has led the charge for their resignations. He’s done so by happily adopting the role of the tip of the spear in public accusations of impropriety against Gay, Magill and Kornbluth, with a particular focus on his alma mater of Harvard. When Magill resigned on Dec. 9, Ackman posted a simple message on X (formerly known as Twitter): “One down.” In fact, Ackman — a Harvard grad himself — has waged his public war against Gay and Harvard’s board largely on the social media platform, where he has nearly 1 million followers. Since the university presidents’ testimony, Ackman has posted or reposted others 166 times on X at time of publication. Of those posts, 145 have been directly about the controversy surrounding the presidents and 12 have been about the conflict in Israel not mentioning a college campus. The nine left over have been on topics like Ukraine, reminding his followers not to fall for fake “Bill Ackman” accounts on other platforms, Hunter Biden and the code that he’s living by as he tries to take down Gay: “the pen is more powerful than the sword.”
THIS SEEMS A CHILDISH ACCUSATION OF QUESTIONABLE VALIDITY!
As Ackman’s campaign to oust Gay, in particular, has evolved, he’s also widened his aperture. While his first complaints about her were narrowly focused on her congressional testimony, Ackman has in recent days latched onto reporting concerning plagiarism in her dissertation — the Harvard Corporation has since cleared her of “research misconduct” but did say it found instances of “improper citation.” He’s also raised concerns about Harvard’s DEI office , and said “I learned from someone with first person knowledge of the Harvard president search that the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office’s criteria.” He’s posted critiques of Gay from a vast array of sources — from New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Alan Dershowitz to Dr. Phil. All of these actions are reminiscent of Ackman’s investment strategy: draw attention to your side of the story, move the market, cash out. It’s worked for him in the past — he was a crusader against MBIA, a municipal bond insurer that went bust in the 2008 financial crisis — but it’s also led to his most public failure, with Herbalife. Before he gets on stage in “Betting on Zero,” Ackman insists to advisors “the [Herbalife] stock’s not going up [after my presentation]. The question is whether it opens again.” But as he wraps up his three-hour presentation and takes off his microphone backstage, a voiceover returns, this time from a financial analyst on TV. “He’s trying to make his wish materialize, and [investors] weren’t impressed. In fact, shares rose more than 23 percent, coming in at six-year highs.” At the moment, his strategy to ratchet up the pressure on Harvard is also not working. Harvard’s highest governing board released a statement Tuesday standing by Gay ; Ackman attributes this at least in part to his activism. “I have been told now by two reporters that one of the factors that made it challenging for the Harvard board to fire Gay was that they were concerned it would look like they were kowtowing to me,” he posted on X . So, Ackman is well aware that his hard charging attacks on Gay can actually have the opposite effect, further entrenching the Harvard president’s position. But he also knows — from his many decades rooting around for what he sees as bad actors and promoting good ones — that pressure campaigns are a long game that can take years to pay off. On Tuesday, in response to a New York Times article concerning his “years of resentment” against the school, Ackman wrote 1,600 words on X explaining what he called a false premise from the Times. He separately complained about the Harvard alumni association supporting Gay without polling its members, and he highlighted a thread about “higher eds ideology problem.” Just like with his high-profile stances in the investment world, Ackman shows no signs of relenting. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh .
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| | A message from bp: bp added more than $70 billion to the US economy last year. We did it by making investments from coast to coast – like acquiring America’s largest biogas producer, Archaea Energy, and producing natural gas with fewer operational emissions in the Permian Basin. See how else bp is investing in America. | | | | | — Appeals court rebuffs Trump’s challenge to New York gag order: An appeals court today rejected former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the gag order barring him from making comments about the staff of the judge presiding over his $250 million civil fraud trial, dealing him another setback in his attempts to fight the restrictions. In a four-page ruling, a three-judge appeals panel dismissed Trump’s challenge largely on procedural grounds, saying the mechanism he used to try to overturn the gag order was “not the proper vehicle” and that he can still appeal the order through the “ordinary appellate process.” — Senate expected to return to DC next week, hoping to finish border talks: Senate Democrats are preparing to return to D.C. on Monday and hope to finalize negotiations on linking border security with Ukraine funding next week , according to senators and people briefed on a party meeting. The Senate was scheduled to start recess as soon as today, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated to Democrats at a caucus meeting that border negotiations are progressing enough to warrant keeping the chamber in session. Ukraine and U.S. officials have urgently pushed to pass additional aid to the country by the end of the year, which Republicans say they won’t approve without significant changes to border policy. — Applesauce pouches may have been contaminated on purpose, FDA foods chief says: Tainted cinnamon applesauce pouches that have sickened scores of children in the U.S. may have been purposefully contaminated with lead , according to FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones. “We’re still in the midst of our investigation. But so far all of the signals we’re getting lead to an intentional act on the part of someone in the supply chain and we’re trying to sort of figure that out,” Jones said in an exclusive interview. The pouches found to be contaminated were sold under three brands — Weis, WanaBana and Schnucks — that are all linked to a manufacturing facility in Ecuador. The FDA says it’s conducting an inspection of that facility.
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| | Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of new episodes – click here . | | | | | | | 14TH AMENDMENT UPDATE — The Michigan Court of Appeals said today it won’t stop former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot , turning aside challenges from critics who argue that his role in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualifies him, reports the Associated Press. The court affirmed two lower court rulings without determining whether Trump falls under the insurrection clause in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. “Who to place on the primary ballot is determined by the political parties and the individual candidates,” the appeals court said in a 3-0 opinion, citing Michigan law. The court further said Trump’s possible spot on a general election ballot was not ripe for consideration. BIDEN TAPS TOP TURNOUT PRO — Joe Biden’s campaign is installing a top voter turnout operative as its chief of staff . Sara Schreiber, who most recently led the progressive nonprofit America Votes, comes on as the campaign scales up staffing at headquarters and in the battleground states. Her hire, announced today, was shared first with POLITICO. Schreiber’s hiring comes amid complaints from Democratic officials and strategists that the Biden campaign isn’t expanding its in-state infrastructure quickly enough, especially compared to other recent presidential reelection campaigns. BATTLEGROUND TOUR — President Joe Biden plans to travel to Milwaukee on Wednesday, marking his third visit to the battleground state this year , the Associated Press writes. The White House announced today that Biden plans to discuss his economic agenda while in Milwaukee. No other details about the trip, including where exactly he was going, were announced. Biden was last in the state for a visit to Milwaukee in August. In February, he visited a Madison-area union training center. Wisconsin is among the handful of critical states where Biden needs to persuade voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives by generating roughly $500 billion in corporate investments in factories and other facilities. Biden has been to Wisconsin six times since he took office in 2021.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President European Commission Ursula von der Leyen give a joint press conference during an EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv on Feb. 3, 2023. | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images | FIRST STEP COMPLETE — EU leaders today agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine after a surprisingly rapid climbdown from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who left the room to allow an unanimous decision, reports POLITICO EU. The leaders also want to approve a €50 billion ($54.95 billion USD) lifeline for Ukraine’s war-struck economy. Also on the agenda are the EU’s long-term budget, defense, Russia sanctions, the Middle East — and anything else the leaders decide to talk about. Kyiv still has a long way to go, though. In total, after a country is granted candidate status, the accession process consists of four steps, which all require unanimous approval from EU leaders. The first one, the decision to open the negotiations, was taken tonight. Next, leaders will have to decide on the negotiating framework for the talks so that Ukraine can prepare to implement EU laws and standards. The framework is based on a proposal from the European Commission, and has to be approved by member countries. After the negotiations are finished, the Commission gives its opinion on whether Ukraine is ready to join the EU, which then has to be unanimously approved by all member countries as well as the European Parliament. Then, finally, leaders from the 27 member countries as well as Ukraine will convene for an intergovernmental conference, during which they will all sign an accession treaty. The accession treaty then has to be ratified by all member countries, which is usually either done by national parliaments or through a referendum. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still celebrating the success of the historic Ukraine decision, the first step in the longer process. “This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens,” Zelenskyy said minutes after the decision was made public by European Council President Charles Michel.
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230,000 The additional number of RSV shots that will be available for infants by January , after the Biden administration struck a deal today with drug manufacturers amid a widespread shortage that’s had parents and pediatricians scrambling to find the respiratory syncytial virus shots. |
| | | THE ‘VIBE-CESSION’ HITS — The past few weeks have seen a slate of media and tech layoffs — despite a relatively strong economy and a very low unemployment rate — as companies have trimmed jobs. Why’s that happening right around the holidays ? For the BBC, Alexis Benveniste reports on some different possibilities: that holiday cutbacks are par for the course, or that there’s a larger, “vibes-based” reason. According to one economist, rocky economic headwinds — or the perception that the economy might take a tumble — are contributing to layoffs at some places. Perception is reality, and that’s contributing to a loss in jobs in some sectors.
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On this date in 1978: U.S. Treasury agents load boxes of files and records from New York nightclub Studio 54 into trucks to transfer to government offices. Co-owner of the nightclub Ian Schrager was arrested earlier for cocaine possession during an IRS search of the club's books. The owners of the club ultimately pled guilty to tax evasion. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .
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