Timeshare mogul David Siegel and his wife, Jackie, recently starred in The Queen of Versailles, a highly-acclaimed documentary which chronicled the couple's quest to build America's most ostentatious home. (At 90,000 square feet, it stands as the country's largest single-family residence.)
However, the CEO of Westgate Resorts, a national company with thousands of employees, is now becoming famous for a not-so-veiled threat to fire his employees should President Obama win re-election.
Gawker procured an email Siegel sent to all his employees, and while the entire thing is a sight to behold, I've pasted the email's conclusion below:
So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.
So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the "1 percenters" are bad, I'm telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the "1%"; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.
You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.
Signed, your boss,
David Siegel
As Gawker notes, Siegel has a history of trying to influence elections,
even claiming public credit for George W. Bush's victory over Al Gore, stating, ""I had my managers do a survey on every employee [8,000 total]. If they liked Bush, we made them register to vote. But not if they liked Gore."
This is a man who now owns the largest house in the country and whose company is at one of its most profitable points ever.
A man who tells his employees, "While the media wants to tell you to believe the '1 percenters' are bad, I'm telling you they are not."
The man who, if Obama wins, will retreat to the Caribbean and sip margaritas with no employees to worry about because, you know...
...one percenters aren't bad at all.