Well, it’s done. Donald Trump is president of the United States.

I never thought I’d write those words. And clearly millions of others are pinching themselves as well.

I didn’t vote for the man – or Hillary Clinton – but I’m pulling for him now.

What surprises me is how many of his critics are not. In fact, much of the commentary against him these days sounds unhinged.

For instance, last week, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker – a man I admire – retweeted a column that said…

Donald Trump’s assumption of the presidency poses the greatest threat to our country of any event in my lifetime. In a future post, I hope to collect in one place what seem to me the best proposals for protecting the United States by opposing and resisting the Trump presidency on every front.

“Resisting the Trump presidency on every front?” How could someone (mysteriously) know that every one of his policy initiatives will be a mistake?

That’s just nutty.

[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]Don’t get me wrong.

I’m no admirer of Trump’s judgment, character or temperament.

He has said (and tweeted) an awful lot of indefensible things.

As I told Trump supporters during the election, “When you say you’d like to see someone from outside of politics – a successful businessman who hasn’t promised everything to everybody and isn’t beholden to donors and special interests – come to Washington, shake things up and clean out the stables, I say ‘right on.’ But when you tell me that person is Donald Trump, I say, ‘count me out.’”

But that was then.

Now I’m pulling for Donald Trump to do the right things just as I pulled for Barack Obama to do the right things, even if – in my view – he generally didn’t.

The stock market rally that has taken place since Trump’s election is evidence that his supporters understood something important.

It’s not that their man is the ideal person for the job. Nobody thinks that. Outside his small cadre of hardcore supporters, most who voted for Trump are well aware of his many shortcomings.

But people wanted change. They felt the country was on the wrong track and “business as usual” couldn’t be tolerated in Washington anymore.

They also knew that Trump is a man with a history of getting things done.

Sure, you can point to his many business failures: Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Airlines, his bankrupt casinos. But capitalism is a profit-and-loss system. Look at his running total.

We can quibble about his net worth – Forbes claims it is closer to $3.7 billion than $10 billion – but the man is a multibillionaire because he got more right than wrong. He listened to smart people. He made good decisions. He took smart risks.

In my experience, millionaires and billionaires aren’t idiots, even when they don’t speak like intellectuals.

The election is a perfect example. The conventional wisdom was that Trump didn’t have a chance. He didn’t have the organization or the staff. He didn’t have the donations or the ground game. He didn’t even have the full weight of his party behind him. His rival outspent him in every category, including advertising.

This just wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did. Trump tapped into voters’ desire for change. And now we have it.

Yes, he isn’t your typical politician. But let’s take a quick look at what our political class has done…

  • The federal debt now exceeds $19.9 trillion. That’s bigger than the U.S. economy.
  • Our unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid top $104.8 trillion – and are growing by over $8 trillion a year.
  • The U.S. tax code is 74,608 pages long. Not even the Internal Revenue Service understands it all. And if an IRS official miscalculates and tells you to pay the wrong amount, you still owe the difference, plus interest and penalties.
  • Federal regulations now cost $1.8 trillion annually. That’s $14,768 per household. Regulatory compliance costs exceed the combined sum of income taxes paid by individuals and corporations.

And this is just for starters…

Donald Trump may not fix these things. Who knows, he may make them worse.

But despite his many flaws, the man struck a chord with millions when he promised to “drain the swamp.”

I’m not an admirer of President Trump – at least not yet – but I’m with him.

As business people, investors and Americans, let’s hope he makes some headway.

Good investing,

Alex

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Source: Investment U