Considering this week’s revelations, I can’t help but remember a famous – or infamous – Trump quote from his 2016 presidential campaign:
We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, “Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President. It’s too much.” And I’ll say, “No, it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!”
It was a ridiculous thing to say in the first place, and it remained equally absurd throughout his first term. While his economic achievements were significant, Trump was also:
- Constantly impugned by the press, along with his supporters
- Caught up in two impeachment battles
- Stymied repeatedly by his own party, much less Democrats
That’s to say nothing about the disaster that was 2020: the virus, the shutdowns, and the elections. It all went downhill. Very, very badly.
But it seems Donald Trump wised up since then to how American and global politics are really run. Because from the very first second he took office in January, he’s been pulling no punches and taking no prisoners.
And while the mainstream media, global powers, and other detractors have mocked him every single step of the way… he has achieved win after win after win so far. I don’t expect it to stop anytime soon.
Just as Trump promised a seeming lifetime ago, there’s a lot more winning to be had. In which case, I’m here today to offer an extremely important word of caution.
In case you were tempted to bet against America, don’t. Our Golden Age has officially begun.
After this week, the signs are becoming impossible to ignore.
Even More Companies Agree to Invest in the U.S.
Over the past two months, I’ve written about how many businesses have committed big money to manufacturing in the U.S.
That list just keeps growing, sometimes so fast it’s hard to keep up. Last week, for example, Lego announced it will build a 2 million-square-foot warehouse in Virginia for $366 million. When it’s done in 2027, it will require an estimated 1,700 employees.
Then, just yesterday, Kraft Heinz (KHC) said it will spend $3 billion to upgrade its U.S. factories. (Reuters notes that this is its “largest investment in its plants in a decade.”) And Verizon (VZ) said it will commit $5 billion to the U.S. on Wednesday as well.
There’s also the $600 billion total investment Saudi Arabia pledged this week through a series of deals. This includes a $142 billion sales contract for “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms,” according to the White House.
And Qatar signed a $200 billion deal to buy Boeing jets during Trump’s visit there.
Combine those with previous announcements like the $700 billion Japan’s SoftBank, Oracle (ORCL), and OpenAI pledged for AI infrastructure. Smaller investments, too, that still add up, such as:
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$20 billion from French shipping and logistics company CMA CGM to build or update ports, shipping, and associated assets
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$18 billion from gas company Venture Global (VG)
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$1.7 billion from yogurt-maker Chobani, including a $1.2 billion dairy plant in New York
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$1 billion from Anduril Industries to build a new drone and defense technology plant in Ohio
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$1 billion from GE Aerospace (GE) to build jet engines
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$700 million from Schneider Electric into U.S. energy assets, its largest investment ever in 135 years
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$350 million from Bel Brands to expand cheese and snack production by 10,000 tons per year
And there’s no use denying it: At least the majority of these investments have come about because of Trump’s tariffs. Kraft Heinz even cited them as a motivating force during its upgrades announcement.
Trump’s Policies – Tariffs and All – Are Improving the U.S.
Most mainstream outlets are still worried these policies will cause short- and mid-term inflation spikes as companies figure out how to handle higher manufacturing costs…
Which, we just learned on Tuesday, haven’t manifested yet.
On a year-over-year basis, U.S. inflation fell from 2.4% in March to 2.3% in April, marking its slowest increase since early 2021. Some products even dropped in price, with gasoline falling 0.1% in April (despite oil rising 0.7%), apparel down 0.2%, groceries down 0.4%, and eggs specifically plummeting 12.7%.
Even new car prices were flat month over month, while used ones saw a 0.5% price drop.
To quote Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, “This shouldn’t be surprising, as it takes time” for tariffs to take effect. “The areas where [they] likely boosted prices in April were in furniture/bedding, appliances, and to a lesser extent, toys.”
Those rose 1.5%, 0.8%, and 0.3%, respectively. And housing did increase 0.3% as well. So we can’t call President Trump a miracle worker on absolutely everything.
There’s still clearly more work to be done.
I’ll also completely agree with Sweet and Trump’s lengthy list of critics that time could still tell a bleaker story. Many believe it might take six months or more before Americans really feel the impact.
Then again, the Federal Reserve released a paper last week that analyzed Trump’s 2018-2019 trade war. (Which the mainstream media also predicted would ruin us.) It found that “tariff changes were passed through fully and quickly – within two months of tariff implementation – to consumer goods prices.”
So if the May inflation report comes back looking as good as the April one did, it seems safe to declare yet another official win for America… on top of all the foreign and domestic investments…
The better-than-expected jobs reports…
The U.K. trade deal…
The official start to trade negotiations with China…
All within Trump’s first four months in office. So what might we see over the next four months or the rest of the year?
Anything can happen, of course. But from where I sit right now, I see much more winning for this Make America Great Again movement.
Regards,
Brad Thomas
Editor, Wide Moat Daily
PS: I’ll be traveling quite a bit over the next few weeks, putting my boots on the ground with trips to Texas, where I’ll meet with two CEOs; Las Vegas for the ICSC conference; Chicago to sit down with a family office; and New York City for the NAREIT conference. It’s possible I’ll even be in Washington, D.C., meeting with the deal-maker-in-chief himself.
Wherever I go though, my goal is always to put my loyal subscribers first and to provide them with key insights into our highly researched stock recommendations.
MAILBAG
What other wins do you think Trump will have during his second term? Write us at [email protected].