Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman, anticipating Israel’s military ground operation in response to the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas, posed a hypothetical question as to what the US government would do if terrorists invaded the country and “brutally killed 1,200 of our citizens.”
“For context on what is to come, ask yourself how the U.S. would respond if 2,500 Mexican terrorists invaded Texas, brutally killed 1,200 of our citizens including women, children and babies — raping decapitating and burning them alive — and kidnapped 150 more, including infants,” Ackman shared on Friday.
“Now adjust the numbers to reflect our 35.5 times larger population,” Ackman added in a later post to his X account, where he boasts more than 814,000 followers.
“What if 42,600 Americans were killed and 5,325 were kidnapped? How would we respond?” Ackman wrote, appearing to suggest that the US government would go to war and fight back.
According to the US Census Bureau, America has a population of 335 million — drastically greater than Israel’s nation of 9.3 million people.
A slew of responses pointed to the US government’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when then-President George W. Bush’s administration launched the “Global War on Terror” campaign that saw more than 2,000 American troops getting deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
Ackman, the founder of New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, has been outspoken since 34 student groups at his alma mater, Harvard University, co-signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ violent assault over the weekend.
Ackman demanded a list of the students involved in the letter so as to make sure they don’t work on Wall Street.
“If, in fact, their members support the letter they have released, the names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known,” he shared on X on Tuesday.
Ackman, a Harvard grad who has a net worth of $3.5 billion, added: “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, who, we now learn, have beheaded babies, among other inconceivably despicable acts.”
Though his calls to oust the students were slammed as “harassment,” the 57-year-old shrugged off the criticism — and even doubled down on his campaign to have companies refuse employment opportunities to Harvard signatories of the controversial letter.
“If you were managing a business, would you hire someone who blamed the despicable violent acts of a terrorist group on the victims?” Ackman wrote on X early Thursday. “I don’t think so.”
At least a dozen business executives backed Ackman, including Jonathan Newman, CEO of salad chain Sweetgreen; David Duel, CEO of health care services firm EasyHealth; and Ale Resnik, the CEO of Belong, a rental housing startup.
Representatives for Ackman at Pershing Square did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Following Hamas’ weekend slaughter of more than 1,200 Israeli men, women and children, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war and Israeli Defense Forces issued airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip.
At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israel’s retaliation, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Among them was a founding member of Hamas, Abd al-Fattah Dukhan, a senior Hamas official known as “Abu Osama.”
Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, governs Gaza, a 25-mile-long strip of land along the Mediterranean with a population of more than 2 million people, and the West Bank, a larger area with both Palestinian and Israeli settlements under Israeli military occupation.
Since its founding, Hamas has vowed to eradicate the Jewish state and create an Islamic state in its place, repeatedly deploying terrorist tactics against Israelis, including mass murder, rocket strikes, suicide bombings and kidnappings.
The group was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western nations in 1997.
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