Trump, McDonald's, and Cheap Happiness - Episode 081

Good morning.

Fresh off your election spree last night.

Fresh off the election spree. Yes. We'll keep the. We'll keep the political talk short. I think some people will appreciate the break. I know I will. Like, even an all in pod that's like really all they've talked about. So I think it'll be nice for the break. We, we try not to focus on it too much, but we do have to talk about it as a big decision. Right. 2024. As of right now, everybody's saying Trump has won. It's been confirmed by multiple news sources. Your initial reactions, My candies.

I don't know. I don't really care. Yeah, it's just like. Yeah. Like, you know, the good thing is I don't think we'll go into war in the next four years. I think we'll withdraw from some of our current spots. That's a big deal for me. And then that ripple down. Ripples down the economy, so. And then that impacts interest rates. So I had, I had contacted, like I did. When I vote, I make sure I know what I'm talking about a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah.

So I contacted a few people I know that are a little higher up in the military and they basically. Okay. Saying, like, everyone's planning that if Kamala was going to win, we were going to go to world war. Going to world war within the four years. And so. And these are people that would not say that. They would never, like, yeah, they're not spewing. Yeah, no, no, These are like, I'm like, I trust these people. They would never say that sort of thing. And so, you know, I don't. I think war is really stupid. And I think that diplomacy and being able to negotiate is why we as humans should not have to do that. And so just like ripping each other apart. And then I think that draws the economy down too, and causes inflation and a lot of other ripple effects. So that was like my main thing this year. That when I was looking at it and then in terms of my initial thoughts, I just hope he can bring people together a little bit more. I don't think it's in him. I think he just loves to fight and like, yeah, yeah, it's in him. So. But I think the broader perspective, like, not having wars.

Feeling pretty confident in, like the tax situation as well as our, our ability to compete. We're on a world stage, I think is going to be good. And like, the reason I actually cared a little bit this year was because the next four years will be really pivotal for Augusta. So, like, we've been doing a lot of, like, the infrastructure part and like, in the next five years, we'll scale. And so, you know, interest rates are going to be a big piece of that if I happen to tap into capital markets. So, yeah, that's what I was thinking about.

And tax benefits, Interest rates. And tax benefits, interest rates.

And like, taxes, like incentives even still, like we're S Corp still, so, like, you know, we're not affected by corporate tax rates.

Yeah, fair enough.

So. But yeah, it was, it was, it was interesting.

Yeah. Yeah. So I stayed up. I wanted to see. I usually when it's election night, if we're going to know what the results are that night, I like to try to see the victory speech live, whoever it is. I like that initial reaction because it kind of sets the tone as well. You know, they're tired. It's been a long 72, 48 hours for them. They haven't slept much. So you kind of see like, what's the tonality of the victory? And with Trump, he actually didn't lean too aggressively into the fight, fight, fight kind of mentality that he's had. He did preach more American prosperity, like that was his goal. He didn't attack or bring up the left or Kamala once, I believe. I mean, you can fact check me. This is just my initial reaction at all. He was focused on American prosperity, which I really liked and I appreciate. My takeaways, actually, it's very interesting. Are from two completely different people. But I thought that they were. I thought they were good takeaways. Number one, Patrick Bet David podcast did a live stream and he was jacked up. He was like, on another level, it was wild. And he's a very public Trump supporter. But one thing that he said that was very interesting in his live stream was the next four years. You may think it's gonna be great, right? Cause he's very pro Trump. He's like, hey, you may think it's gonna be great, but what you need to do for you, your family is plan how you're going to take advantage of the next four years. And obviously, Patrick bet David's audience is mostly going to be like business owners or business type folks. And he's saying you need to make a four year plan for you, for your business, for your family, because you can't just assume if you think Trump's great and America's going to bounce back or whatever, you still have to have a plan, you still have to act on it. I thought that was great advice because a lot of people put too much emphasis on elections. They kind of give the power away to whoever wins. I thought that was great advice. And the second was John Stewart, and his initial reaction was, these pundits know nothing, and you have to stay focused on you, and you have to stay focused on creating a better world for yourself, for your family, for your community. And he did this quick. I'm not going to show it, but he did this quick succession of pundit takes since 2020, or, excuse me, 2008. And it's hilarious. Like, you know, one of them, and 2008 is like, and the racial divide in America is over. And he was like, yeah, that lasted one day, you know, because Obama won. Right. And he just shows these pundit clips and he goes, it doesn't matter. The experts know nothing. It really comes down to us as individuals trying to better ourselves, our families and our communities. And that's what you have to choose to do every day. And I thought those were two great takeaways. Whether, you know, Patrick, Brett David is a huge Trumper, and Jon Stewart's pretty left publicly speaking. I. I think it's still a good message that they both kind of agree on.

Yeah, the. The. The historic thing that is about this is like, we have a full suite. Yeah, I should say we. The red.

The red side has, like a red full suite. Right. So that, like, House, Senate, and you have the presidency. So whatever they want to get done in next four years or two years, they can get done.

Yep.

And so Trump has a really interesting opportunity because he doesn't get to run again. He's also the end of his career, end of his life, and so I really hope that settles in. I just don't see a track record of that happening. But, like, I also think he has a really, really strong vp. I think JD Vance is solid. I know he has, like, some stuff in his past where everyone does so, but, like, I mean, like, overall, like, as a communicator, as a negotiator, as a leader, as someone that can speak well to both sides of the aisle, I think he's solid. I. Obviously, we'll see what happens next few years. But, like, I think JD could be a really good next four to eight years for the party.

Assuming he can pick up a lot of stuff in VP and then take that on the presidency down the road. I don't know. I'm just. Just kind of pontificating, but I think he's a very solid communicator, and he doesn't feel like a politician to the extent that previous, previous administrations have. So they have a very unique two years. Dude, they could put one bill on the table and get everything passed.

Yeah.

They could live to take everything they want to do this agenda and in the next six months have a bill and it get pushed through Senate, pushed through House and just go in. So it's good. There's going to be actually change made. Like that's what I'm looking forward to is like there is not that divide at Senate House. And I usually kind of like that to kind of keep things balanced.

Right.

Because like usually kind of gridlots thing grab gridlocks things. There isn't a lot of changes made. But I do think we've kind of swung so far in one direction and this is why the polls went the way they did is like we kind of need a balance and we need a correction back the other direction. So I'm interested to see what they do. And he's made a lot of promises and so historically he usually does them and somehow pulls off like a wall and like cutting corporate taxes. And he did it in the past. So it's interesting to see what happens there. I really want to see what happens next four months when it comes to Ukraine and when it comes to Palestine and several other areas that we have these factions and see what happens there.

Yeah. One thing that I thought was interesting, if you look at the exit polls and I know I just said, you know, John Stewart, the pundits, the pollsters, they know nothing. But if you do look at the exit polls, which some people say are accurate, not in terms of who voted for who, because some people do not feel comfortable sharing that information. They, they like the privacy of, of casting their ballot. But the exit poll, what was the main concern or decision point in your vote and the overwhelming majority of America was concerns for democracy. And that was what the Democrats really ran on, was that Trump was going to ruin democracy. And what now all the pundits are saying, I know, I don't know if they're, they're act they're right or not, but they are now saying, well, maybe that's what Trump's voters were concerned about, the way Kamala was put into power and that they felt that if the Democrats won again, they would lose more power in elections, in their authority as voters. And so democracy was. Concerns for democracy was the core issue on both sides. And that actually didn't play out well for the Democrats.

So.

Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I don't think that I have anything else on that.

The garbage truck was.

Garbage truck. Great marketing. Great marketing.

I think Baron Trump is like the secret weapon behind Donald Trump's success. This campaign. He got him on all the podcasts. He's very connected. You even look at the difference in social media. Like they, they just, they just crushed it. Like his kids put him in.

Yeah.

Like, in terms of, like making sure he was connected with all the right people, like the Dana White connection, the Elon connection, all in podcast. You look, it's all his kids really doing a great job. So whether or not like people like that or not, it just like, it was interesting to see the uniqueness of like Eric Trump posting a backstage picture about to go on versus, like Kamala with her camera on, making phone calls to people. Like, it's just staged. And not to say that both sides don't do stage things, of course. Of course. But it's like the, the authenticity of social media and grassroots marketing and a guerrilla marketing versus, like very structured, very, you know, campaign driven. And so, yeah, I'm interested to see the. We're recording this first thing in the morning. Yeah. So I'm interested to see like the speech from Kamala and see if she does anything weird. I think she'll be pretty, you know, handing the reins over and be pretty peaceful. But it is kind of funny that she has to certify the election. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And give us some grace because this is our initial reaction. Quite literally, it is the morning after 7am right after. So there's a lot of stuff that's going to come out where you're not making massive endorsements or statements because we, we don't know what's going to happen in the next 40.

I also think that we are on the verge of a recession.

Yeah.

If you look at, if you look at the data from, from unemployment and then now you're gonna have all these seasonal workers that just come out of the election. There's hundreds of thousands of them that are employed seasonally for the election. They're all going to go now, be unemployed. You look at last month's revision on the jobs data and the, the general direction of unemployment, it is not good. The amount of jobs being created last, I think Last quarter was 12. Last month was 12,000 jobs in all of the United States. Net positive that will turn negative. I think even the next couple months there'll be seasonal stuff. And yes, the hurricanes adjusted, blah, blah, blah, blah. Look at the curve over the past 24 months, we have a solid decline of the mad jobs being created. And so I think we are on the verge of recession. We have high interest rates still. We can't lower them too quickly because we have inflation still knocking on the door. So it's not like we. He's getting handed this beautiful thing. The stock market's ripping.

Oh, yeah.

But that is no indication of the economy in many terms, in many, many cases. And so there's a very good chance that in February, March, we have horrible data coming in and he's in the middle of a recession when he walks into the office. I do believe in the next four years we will have some serious prosperity in terms economically. And that is why I voted the way I did.

Yeah.

And so I just, I just think that the economy is one thing that affects all of us. Like there are these people will have their one or two things they'll vote based upon, but the economy will affect all of it. Because if you have a great economy, you can afford other programs, afford other things. And so I'm very interested to see how we do a spending. Like if they come through the new budget, it will get passed. This is like the first time in a long time a budget will get passed with whatever is put on it. And so, like, can we actually balance the budget? I don't think so. No, I know we will not. But can we get closer to it? Can we actually show the American people, people how to have financial responsibility? I don't believe we can. But Trump has nothing to lose in this term because he can't get voted in again. So can he actually bring down the hammer and do what we need to do for the long term Debt? I don't know, but we'll see. I think he's going to run it hot the way he is. He's going to, like, want to cut interest rates. He's going like, even cutting taxes is also inflationary. Like, people spend more money, so then inflation runs hot. So then we have to do. You have to sort of interesting to see what happens there. But I think he will try to like, grow at all costs. And I'll grow the grow. I'll grow everything. Because in that economy. Sorry, no, you're good talking. But in that economy of grow, grow, grow, everyone feels rich. And it's very good politically. Whereas if you're like, hey, we're gonna slash budgets, we're gonna cut spending, we're gonna cut government jobs. That creates horrible politic, political, you know, undertones.

Yeah, I think he has the balance, though, of a young GOP J.D. vance. Right. If, if the GOP's plan is to put J.D. vance kind of in the driver's seat after Trump and potentially position him to be the next president, then I think he'll be the balance to that because he can't. Trump can't push to all extremes because then what's going to happen in four years, he's going to flip again.

Yeah.

So they need that transfer of power to JD Vance, which allows him to kind of have more balanced approach over the next four years.

Yeah. And I'm just happy my 30s are like going to be. I think my 30s are going to be like peak, really where I need it to be at.

Yeah.

So it's one of those things that's like, you know, luck meeting, opportunity. Yeah. Like, I think I'm going to get lucky for the next like two to three terms because I think, I believe we're going to have a pretty good economic people, we're going to get out of wars and stuff like that. I think the next election people are going to be like, okay, I can compare the two and I want the latter. Yeah. And then another four years, I think we'll be public by then. So, um, once, once we're there, then it's like, okay, you do whatever you want. Like. Yeah, I just need to, I need to like work on this thing for the next eight years.

Yeah, fair enough. And last thing on this, Elon was not in attendance or not on stage, but there was a backstage photo of him with Dana White and Trump, which I thought was just hilarious with him talking. Yeah, I saw that one.

Wait, that was backstage. I saw a different one. I saw a different one.

No, I know. That's the one. I think it was. I think Elon was there for like the dinner or whatever, but he wasn't there like on stage.

Like, he didn't stay all night, was it? CEO, cto, cmo.

But I think Elon honestly is probably the biggest impactor of this election. I don't know if you'd agree with that, but I mean, he owns X and he's very pro free speech on X. He was doing all sorts of campaigning for Trump in Pennsylvania, which was arguably the most important battleground state.

Okay. One thing politically she messed up on is Pennsylvania. Like if she would have got Shapiro, who they love in the Pennsylvania, that could have swung.

Yeah.

Anyway, sorry.

No, you're good. So I think Elon not single handedly, but he was one of the biggest inflection points for Trump during this election. And his tweet After Fox announced Trump as the winner, did you see what it was?

I don't know.

He just said, you are the media now.

Oh, yeah. Which.

It's kind of ambiguous, but I get it. It's basically kind of the speaking truth to power, if you will.

I have to give him credit. Last night, I didn't speak a lot of time. I just kind of jumped on it back and forth. X was the most balanced.

Yeah.

I saw both sides. I saw extremity, extremities of both sides. I saw the middle. Like, I did feel like it was balanced.

Yep.

And that's tough because what. What was interesting to me is people going on there and freaking out about, how is this possible, it's rigged. When all I was seeing was X, Y and Z on both sides. And the same thing happened in 2020. And it's because, like, the algorithm is feeding you what you always like to watch. Yeah. And so you're only seeing the YouTube videos that are about either side. And so I think I thought exited well, just based on probably 20 to 30 minutes of consumption last night on X, I thought it was the most balanced. I saw both sides of my feed and both extreme sides, and I thought that was healthy.

Yeah.

In 2020, it wasn't like that. I remember going on there just like, this is so stupid. Like, I know there's more. The 50% of people are voting the opposite direction of what this is telling you. This is 99% one way. Yeah.

Fair enough. Well, that is your election update. Hopefully we can be off politics for a while. We'll try to move back to business timestamp.

Like, skip to. Skip to 19 minutes.

Skip ahead if you don't want the politics. We're. We're moving on. All right. We're moving to business.

New pod. Here we go.

Welcome to the pod. Welcome back. Another episode. C Suite Unfiltered. Mike Andes, we are jumping into business now.