Because we need another New York billionaire in the race.

(Reuters) – Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has told his aides to draw up plans for an independent campaign for the U.S. presidency, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Bloomberg has advised friends and associates that he would be willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own money on a campaign for the November 2016 election, according to the source, who spoke on condition on anonymity to discuss the former mayor’s thinking.

News of Bloomberg mulling a presidential run was first reported Saturday by the New York Times.

In many ways, Bloomberg is a lot like Trump. They are both pro-big government, pro-abortion, pro-eminent domain, etc. One difference is that Bloomberg’s big issue is his passionate hatred of the 2nd Amendment and Trump is pretending to be pro-gun at the moment. Bloomberg is also a lot richer than Trump, which has to get under Trump’s skin. I suspect that a Bloomberg candidacy is more likely to pull more liberals and Democrats than Republicans, which would favor the Republican candidate.