by Bob Gatty
Mathew Toro is only 32 years old, but he says he has already spent six years preparing for a possible run for president of the United States in 2036.
Toro says this is not a sudden ambition, but a 16-year effort he began in 2020, when he was just 26 years old.
He describes 2036 as “a date with American history.”
That is an enormous ambition. It also raises an obvious question:
Will Toro be ready—and will America be ready for him?
In a new Lean to the Left interview, Toro explains the personal experiences, political beliefs, and economic proposal that he says inspired his presidential quest.
He describes himself as an author, artist, activist, boxer, and father. He has also experienced homelessness, traveled across the country by bus, stayed in shelters, and slept in abandoned buildings and on rocks.
Those experiences, he says, convinced him that political leaders often discuss social problems without offering meaningful solutions.
Toro believes the central problem facing Americans is the loss of the value created by their labor.
His answer is what he calls the Economic Justice Revolution.
Returning Corporate Profits to Workers
Toro proposes that companies be allowed to keep the first $1 billion in annual net income untouched.
Above that amount, he says, 36 percent of additional net income should be returned directly to the company’s workers.
He used Apple as an example.
According to Toro’s explanation during the interview, if the policy had been applied to Apple’s profits and workforce, each qualifying worker could have received a substantial annual payment.
Toro insists this would not be a government handout.
He calls it a return of wealth to the employees whose labor helped create it.
“We cook the pie,” he said. “We bake the pie. Let’s get some of that pie.”
Toro argues that the policy would help workers afford housing, medicine, childcare, education, and other necessities. He also believes it would benefit businesses by putting more money into the hands of consumers.
In his view, corporations ultimately cannot prosper if their customers are broke.
A Candidate Without a Campaign—Yet
Toro readily acknowledges that he does not currently have the staff, money, political organization, ballot-access operation, or national network required for a serious presidential campaign.
He says that is why he is beginning so early.
“I’m barely half the man I’ll be in 2036,” Toro said.
He believes social media and online organizing may allow him to build a national grassroots movement more efficiently than candidates could in the past.
But significant questions remain.
Toro has not held elected office. He earned a GED and has not completed higher education, although he says he continually educates himself and has considered studying economics or political science.
He also has not yet developed a detailed governing agenda covering the full range of responsibilities facing a president.
His strongest focus is economic justice.
On healthcare, Toro expressed support for universal preventive care as a possible compromise. He believes broader economic improvements would help people afford other medical needs.
On foreign policy, his answers were far less developed. He strongly criticized Donald Trump but offered few specifics about how he would approach war, alliances, China, Russia, or national security.
That gap matters.
A president is not simply an economic reformer. The president is also commander in chief, chief diplomat, party leader, crisis manager, and head of a vast executive branch.
Can Passion Become Credibility?
Toro’s sincerity is difficult to question.
He speaks passionately about workers, poverty, homelessness, corruption, and corporate power. He believes his proposal can appeal to liberals and conservatives because both groups include people who feel underpaid and economically insecure.
He also believes resistance from Congress could eventually be overcome by public pressure.
Critics may see that as politically naïve. Powerful corporations, congressional leaders, courts, lobbyists, and entrenched interests rarely surrender without a fight.
Toro believes a mass movement would make his proposal inevitable.
Whether that confidence represents vision or inexperience is something voters would eventually have to decide.
For now, Toro remains a young activist with a large idea and an extraordinary goal.
He has ten years to demonstrate whether he can build an organization, develop expertise, raise money, recruit capable advisers, broaden his policy knowledge, and prove that he can lead.
Will Mathew Toro be ready by 2036?
And after another decade of economic inequality, political division, and public distrust, will America be ready for the revolution he proposes?
Watch the Lean to the Left interview and decide for yourself.