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The Carolina Contractor Show
The Carolina Contractor Show
Campaign Promises That Impact Construction
What if the re-election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States could reshape the entire construction industry landscape? Join Donnie Blanchard and Eric Smith on The Carolina Contractor Show as he shares firsthand insights gained from his businesses, SureTop Roofing and Blanchard Building Company. In this episode, we step beyond our usual DIY projects to uncover how Trump's economic and immigration policies might influence the construction sector and beyond. With a spirited blend of optimism and critical analysis, we navigate the complex political terrain and reflect on the broader economic implications for businesses like ours.
Explore the crossroads of energy independence and environmental stewardship, where traditional fossil fuels meet clean energy initiatives. We shine a light on Donnie's role as the on-camera general contractor in the series "50-50 Flip," and how it echoes the ongoing debate over energy policies in the U.S. From Keystone pipeline discussions to the benefits of solar and nuclear power, this lively conversation examines the economic impact these policies wield over everyday business operations. It's a balanced exploration of the opportunities and hurdles that come with different energy strategies, all filtered through the lens of a contractor who knows the ropes.
Immigration and infrastructure take center stage as we dissect the nuances of undocumented immigration and the allocation of infrastructure funds. We talk about the real-world challenges faced by industries like construction and the need for a more discerning approach to immigration policies. The conversation doesn’t shy away from critiquing government actions or highlighting the hypocrisy of certain political stances. We cap off the episode with a look at how these political dynamics might shape the future of construction, and invite you to continue following the series for more insights and thought-provoking discussions on the impact of a Trump presidency.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with your host, General Contractor Donnie Blanchard. The Fox News decision desk can now officially project that Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States.
Speaker 2:Hello boys, I'm back, I'm back.
Speaker 1:So Donnie has something happened recently in the past couple days. I don't know what you're talking about, but everything sure seems a little lighter these days. Yeah, even with us going back an hour and it being darker earlier in the day, things seem just a little bit sunnier to me.
Speaker 2:Would you agree? Definitely. And it's not just us, man. Everywhere you go supply house restaurants, everybody's just, even over the phone, people seem to be in a good mood.
Speaker 1:The future's so bright. You got to wear shades kind of thing going on. And welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show. My name's Eric Smith. I do inside sales with Home Builders, supply in Wilson, greenville.
Speaker 1:Donnie Blanchard the other happy guy here among millions of people the majority of the US, I would say Donnie's a general contractor, also owner of Sure Top Roofing, owner of Blanchard Building Company, and this is our little show we do.
Speaker 1:We usually talk specifically about your house, like DIY projects or even building a house from scratch from the ground up, like Donnie does, and ways to improve it and things like that. But today, with the recent election or re-election election of Donald Trump to the White House, we're going to kind of go over some of the things that he has promised. Now I haven't talked to you, donnie, but I would assume that, like the majority of people that voted for him, there were probably two main things the economy and immigration, and people know his stance on those two things. But he had some other areas where he's taken positions of what he wants to do once he assumes office again. For the winning for the third time I'm sorry, did I say that out loud? Winning for the second time and we're going to go over those in a little bit, but did you have any categories, donnie, that you specifically supported Trump on, or why you voted for him, because it's no secret who he voted for?
Speaker 2:Absolutely To agree with what you just said. The economy was my hot button and I watched my sales not tank, but we lost about $2 million in sales since before the pandemic and that's really tough to make up for. Our overhead almost doubled and it just seemed like every policy that has been put in place in the last three and a half years didn't work for me. So when we talked about putting the show together, I think the interesting tie-in is we came up with a lot of facts and a lot of categories that relate to construction and what you know. We expect, the new, what we expect not what we expect, but what he ran on as a campaign promise and you know, I think we can tie that all the way back to the 2016 through 2020 and what he started with then and what he's going to pick up, what he's not going to pick up and what he's going to do better 100% and I do think he's more seasoned as a politician, as a leader, and I'm hoping he picks better people.
Speaker 1:It seems so far he has, because we haven't heard much dirt on him during the campaign. That was real and maybe that's because all that dirt has been revealed. You know who he is. So, whether you agree with his character or not, we're not voting on a date for the Valentine's dance. We're voting for somebody to lead a nation and I'm going to take the warts and all that come with someone like that.
Speaker 1:But before we jump into the show in detail, I do want to mention again this is the Carolina Contractor Show. The website is a great place to find information about what we're doing here TheCarolinaContractorcom. We got links to Facebook. You want to watch the show? It's on YouTube. You can also find the podcast. We've got several hundred of them. And also, if you have a question about the show or you have a question directly about your house, again, you've got a general contractor on your side and Donnie Blanchard so he can answer your questions. Just click on the Ask the Contractor button. Also want to mention that Donnie's a movie star. He doesn't think he is, but he's kind of a TV star. Sorry, wrong medium. So a while back, let's see. How long has this been, Donnie, that you started working with 50-50 Flip.
Speaker 2:We filmed all 10 episodes last year and we finished in the fall of last year and the interesting thing that happened was A&E Network filmed the show.
Speaker 2:So we worked with all the producers, executive producers from that network, and right at the very end, hulu swooped in and bought the rights to the show.
Speaker 2:Hulu reserved the rights to debut the show back in February and I think that the thing they had in place was that had to wait six or eight months before A&E could air the show, because they wanted to see how the metrics were playing out for Hulu and which is fair. But it's taken all this time and so Saturday, november the 9th, we will air episode one on A&E network at 11 am and they said that they will air one episode a week for 10 weeks and then I think we're going to rerun for about two years, which is big time because we'll be all over A&E for the next couple of years and not everybody has Hulu. No knock on Hulu, but I didn't have it before the show came out and I basically got it just to watch our show and check it out. So I think that we'll get a much broader audience when it airs on A&E and I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the show again is 50-50 flip and basically they find houses and they buy them and then flip them and they do it in a short period of time. The reason we also bring it up was not only Donnie the on-camera general contractor, they also came in studio and did a show with us and there's an episode there where you can see us Donnie's families in various parts. It's a cool show. We were just very thankful that they decided to also do our show, which they'd done before on radio. But to have them bring in the TV studio from A&E was a pretty monumental and pretty cool thing to see.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was a big deal If you could see behind the scenes, and I think on our Instagram and our Facebook page I have a couple of videos showing just how big the production crew was, and, you know, kind videos showing just how big the production crew was and, um, you know, kind of made me feel important. But, um, I forgot to mention one thing that's important that it's season two. So season one there was a different guy and he wasn't uh, I don't think he even had a general contractor license and they only came up with six episodes out of 10 for season one. It's still pretty darn good. Dedrick and Crystal did a great job.
Speaker 2:But season two was my time to shine and they really let me. They gave me some tough jobs and we flipped 10 houses and I'd say about six out of the 10 were, in terms of difficulty, some of the hardest renovations I've ever pulled off. But, man, they look good and it's really been great for business and it's been one of those things that's very thought provocative in terms of ideas for your house. So encourage everybody to check it out. 11 o'clock Saturday morning.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. A&e Television this Saturday is the debut of season two 50-50 flip. Let's jump into the big thing. We're going to talk about Donald Trump getting reelected. Somebody said it was his. I know I was one of them, but there's a joke. He was elected for the third time.
Speaker 1:I pointed out that he defeated two presidential candidates in one race because technically he defeated Biden and then he defeated Harris, and you have that celebratory week if your candidate wins or if you have something that's monumental like this.
Speaker 1:It was Grover Cleveland that won the presidency twice, but not consecutively, so that was in the late 1800s. So this is a pretty monumental thing and also the first time the Republican candidate won the popular vote nationwide since what, I think George W his second term, I think won the national popular vote, but still it's a big deal. But regardless of what side you're on, trump has a platform. The GOP has a platform. There's a lot of things in it, and so these are subjects we're going to cover today, that we're going to talk about what he has promised, or maybe, as you said, donnie, what he did his first term, that he will continue, and maybe some things that he had going in his first term that he lost, they were stopped and he's going to start them back up, and I think we need to start off with the big one, which would be energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean no secret that he really wants to focus on domestic energy production, which is fossil fuels, and the pipeline got cut off as soon as he got out of there and, ironically, the Russian pipeline opened up. So it's like all these people who were, you know, we could basically give the fossil fuels to, we're getting it from somewhere else, and it just kind of seemed like somebody else was behind that and I don't understand the reason for cutting off the. Is Keystone the right way? Keystone pipeline pipeline yes, sir, yeah. So the one that they shut down, that was unfortunate because, of course, we saw the end result with the gas prices. But one of the things he wants to end is that the regulations on federal drilling permits leases anything related to oil and gas, and that's not just something that we picked up off the Internet, that's straight off of his website.
Speaker 1:So from the horse's mouth, that's a campaign promise. Yeah, and I think there's a lot of other regulatory barriers that we don't know about when it comes to energy sector, because drilling for oil or anything where you're going to be drilling into the ground is kind of like trying to start a brewery. There's so many obstacles put in the way for you to start producing that and distributing it and getting it out there. And a lot of companies are like it's not worth the hassle but being energy independent. If you want a history lesson, look into Teddy Roosevelt. He said let the rest of the world sell us their stuff and we'll keep ours, and then, when we need it, we can tell them to take a hike. And this is a time of the world that, if we have all the stuff we need and we can get it, the rest of the world has no power behind us. So yeah, drill, baby drill, I'm all for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, energy independence. I mean, that's a big thing. I don't know that we've been energy independent in a long time and we're sitting on more oil reserves than anybody else in the world and I didn't know that until they made that a fact and I said, hey, what in the world? Nothing makes sense about why we're doing this and I understand. I don't understand, but I know that they have.
Speaker 2:The other side is really pushing for clean energy and windmills, solar I'm all about solar, I don't know about windmills, but they're against things like nuclear power, which has the least waste. It's the cleanest way to produce power. But it just seems like it goes against common sense. And I had someone tell me when I was complaining about the price of gas going up well, it's only $100 a week. I said, well, yeah, but I have nine trucks on the road, so $100 a week ends up being $4,000 to $5,000 a month for somebody like me.
Speaker 2:And the jobs that I'm doing this month I priced out several months ago. So where does that money come from? And really it has just forced us to get creative. It's forced us to cut our overhead way back and really it's been one of those things when we compete in the subcontractor world with the roofing or in the contractor world with the housing. We're competing with people that don't play by the same rules. So things like $4,000 $4,000 a month just for just for gas alone, that that's really a dagger for somebody with a small business like mine.
Speaker 1:Now I want to interject something. As some people know you among them, donnie my wife is a high school teacher and she knows history and that's what she is, her forte. I said Teddy Roosevelt, and she's in the other room and she sends me a text and says it was FDR. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, not Teddy Roosevelt. So I'm fine with being corrected by her. Thanks, Kim. Did you hear that hon? He thanked you. She said she heard you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, let's jump to the next thing environment, and this ties to energy because, as we said before, when you're going to drill for oil, a lot of the things that stopped it were environmental issues and a lot of it was crap. The Keystone was strictly political. They use that. You're going to harm some the way a gray mouse poops in the trees or something if you build this pipeline. But it was strictly caving to environmental extremists, and some of them are even designated I don't know if you knew this as terrorist organizations.
Speaker 1:I think the environmental parts that Trump is for is where Republicans or conservatives in general need to explain clearly we love the environment. It's like hunters love deer. They want to manage populations, but people that don't understand it say that well, they're just killing Bambi. Much like the environment, conservative management of the environment is the norm. We understand it and we want to do it. We're not reckless with it, but there are some things that he wants to do, and a lot of that, to me, is going to be into getting rid of the climate change agreements and barriers, because we're saying, oh, the world's turning into hell. We can't, you can't have AC and it's going to cost you money out of your wallet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it said that he wanted to dramatically cut the EPA's budget so that was the way they worded that and said that they rolled back more than 100 or so environmental rules. They rolled back more than 100 or so environmental rules and one of the reasons for that is it's sped up permitting on construction projects, which is how it ties into my world. I'm in Burlington and you know this. Alamance County, you know Chatham County, orange County, wake County are border folks to us and I just want to sing the praises of Alamance County because they operate with common sense and you can get it may take a couple of weeks, but the right hand knows what the left hand is doing in the environmental health department, so you can put an application. Everything's very streamlined. And you know most of the municipalities are going to portals right now where we have to do this all online. You know that's OK for me. I'm I'm I'm well sort of tech savvy. But you know I can only imagine a 65, 70 year old contractor who, you know, not not too good with a computer. He probably pulls his hair out because if you get in one of these surrounding counties, you know the red tape is just insane. And like I said about Alamance County and these surrounded counties, it's like the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand, so they don't know. The entity that you're dealing with doesn't know what other people in the department, the same building, are even doing, so it's almost like they're they're they're putting a policy in place that they don't even know how to enforce. So for somebody like myself, you just have to please everybody. They don't even know how to enforce. So for somebody like myself, you just have to please everybody. And I won't call them out by name either, but just recently got a permit about a year ago that is in a county next to us, and it took me four or five months to get that permit. I've never seen such and it was little things like you would upload it into the portal and it would be a JPEG image and not a PDF file and they they would reject it. But you wouldn't know that until you check back. And they're in the process of trying to streamline the contractors to use the portal and that's better for them. But it's just really muddy in the meantime and it's tough to get a permit. I think all that's just because they put all these green regulations in place and that calls for somebody to have a new job that pays 80 to 100 grand. And those people, they want to seem relevant. So they want you to. They want you to you know see how important they are and they're part of the process to approve or disapprove your permit.
Speaker 2:And I can't say that I disagree with this in terms of what you said earlier. I can't say that I disagree with this in terms of what you said earlier. The whole the climate change thing I'm not the guy to say yay or nay on it, but my gut tells me it almost seems like a hoax. It seems like a cause that's not worth fighting for. And gosh when, when a hundred dollar grocery trip is all of a sudden two hundred dollars. I don't care if it's, if it's a quarter of a degree warmer this year.
Speaker 1:You know I mean address accordingly yeah, because giving the government more money is not going to affect the environment. They're just going to waste it on something else. Speaking of that, we did a whole show one time on the Inflation Reduction Act, and was it going to affect inflation and reduce it? And back in September, biden was talking and he has these moments of unintentional honesty or clarity. He referred to it as the climate change bill or the green deal, and he even went on to say we should have just called it that, because that's what the money was for. So he flat out admitted in September this wasn't going to do anything for inflation. Really, it was just a spending bill for the greenies. And again, I'm not against environmental controls, I'm not against doing things that benefit it, but I think conservation, that's a Teddy Roosevelt thing. Conservative values, if they're truly done right, are great for the environment and its management. That's what we need.
Speaker 1:Let's jump to the hot topic issue that a lot of people voted Trump for, and this was his stance on immigration. We knew this before he ran in 2016. And it seemed like the wall was the big thing, but he ran into a problem and that was a GOP, who could have financed and helped him wouldn't finance or help him really do this wall, so he tried to take some different approaches to it that didn't fail. So I think this time maybe will the GOP help him really fight illegal immigration.
Speaker 2:It's hard to say. He went out with the intention to build 2,000 miles of border wall and he ended up coming out of that with about 50, was it 52 miles? I think is all that he was able to build because he just ran into a brick wall. No pun intended, and you know they're really. I think I think this time around maybe they'll work with him. That leads me to comment on, you know, mass deportations.
Speaker 2:I think that he promised that I'm all about deporting people who are criminals with a criminal record. I think that that's that's something that has no place here. Criminal record I think that that's something that has no place here. I also think that there are a lot of good folks here and I'm knee deep in the construction world. There are a lot of good folks here who really need to be taken into consideration for just a path to legal citizenship, and the guys that work for us. They've all taken that path and it is hard, it takes time, but they also pay taxes and now they have the ability to get a car loan, get a house loan, and it's life changing. So I think just, instead of just sending a lot of people out with no explanation, I think that you vet these folks and if criminal record you're gone, if you shouldn't be here, if you you know certain things like maybe you don't speak any English, you know that makes it a lot harder on you. If you don't have a skill set, that makes it a lot harder on you.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of on the fence with that one, I don't. The mass deportations, I think, is going to be very complicated and if you can imagine what that looks like, what do you do? You round up all these people into an area, a big fenced area, and do you bus them out, do you fly them out? And are there children involved? That just gets so messy and muddy. And it's no secret that Hispanics are a huge part of the construction workforce. And when I say that I preach respect in my household, I tell my daughters and my son that hey, you know so many folks, so many Hispanic folks are great people. And I think that you know this has been a hot button for the election, but I think that it might have been pitched a little too aggressively because realistically, I don't know how you solve that one overnight.
Speaker 1:I think the first thing is just shut the influx, just say, all right, we're shutting the door, we're not letting people come in and then go through the process of what you said you want to get a license, you want to get this, but you're undocumented, let's run some stuff. If you don't have a criminal record, that's a positive thing. If you're employed, it's positive. So there's many things we can do to determine you're out. You get to stay, but you do need to go through this certain pathway, but you've already proven to be a positive, productive benefit to society. I hate that position of who's going to do the slave labor if we don't have the illegal immigrants. Have a little respect for these people. What a leftist mentality. Well, who's going to do my laundry? Who's going to pick my food if we get rid of them? How about pay them, train them, let them come in, vet them?
Speaker 2:Yep, there's a couple of clips on the internet where they went to very well-to-do neighborhoods and they asked the folks where they stood on immigration policy and everything and they fully supported it being wide open and all the things. And the guy said, well, okay, he had a walkie talkie. He said, well, pull up, we've got somewhere for them to go. And they pull up and about 20 people jump off of a bus and the lady says, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't stay here. You know, they backed up real quick.
Speaker 1:Sort of like some of the politicians. It's like you know you run for one thing, but when this comes to your neighborhood, knocks on your door, you think a whole different way. You know, kim and I talk about that being people who want to help a liberal cause or not even a liberal cause that they're glad to give money to the soup kitchen. But if you ask them, do you want to come down and help make the meals and serve them? They're like whoa, that's dirty work. I don't do that. If and serve them, they're like whoa, that's dirty work. I don't do that. If I just throw some money to it, that's a good thing, right.
Speaker 1:And that's where the government preys on ignorance yes, give us money, we'll do it right. Every time you say, yeah, tax those rich people ask yourself how do you benefit? How do you get anything better in life when a millionaire, a billionaire, how do you get anything better in life when a millionaire, a billionaire, whoever gets more taxes applied to them? You never see any benefit because the money ain't coming to you, it's going to the government. They're going to spend it on other stuff. I'm off my box.
Speaker 2:No, I agree, I agree. What's next Infrastructure?
Speaker 1:I don't know what you do and you can get some things started, but I don't know where you start and I don't know how long it's going to take, and I don't know if you have ideas of what you think would be a good starting point to improve infrastructure in the US.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean really. Obviously you drive through certain towns and you're thinking, wow, they need an upgrade here and where are the tax dollars in this town? And I just feel like a lot of that money is inappropriate. I think that I think that infrastructure bills are out there, that that are a good thing, and the high traffic areas where the big cities are, you know, obviously you have, you have no choice but to keep those, keep everything serviced very well in those areas, but the trickle down to some of the lower income counties that surround those areas are, I don't see that money being allocated in the right way. And you know infrastructure. I know that they have a lot of programs for minority and women owned businesses and that's. That's all fine and good.
Speaker 2:But I do believe that there was part of the area on Trump's website where he said he was going to cut infrastructure funding programs for for some of these, and some of these were tied to that Inflation Reduction Act that you mentioned, and I think that it's one of those things where the Republican Party basically said that they must return to their roots as a party of industry, manufacturing, infrastructure and workers, but they didn't offer any policy specifics until now. So I'm anxious. He hasn't commented a lot on this one, but I know he knows it needs attention. I think that he's going to make it very fair so that maybe he'll make it where the more qualified company gets the job. It's one of those things where on a great big project, that's way out of my world, that's not my competition, that's competition for the other folks who operate on a $20 million scale. So I'm anxious to see how that plays out.
Speaker 1:I will say one thing when it comes to infrastructure, especially if Elon Musk is going to be on his team in some way or be active in the presidential's I don't know if the presidential cabinet, but they might form something new is I'm fine if you want the electric car, the Tesla and all that, but the infrastructure is not there to power it. So if he wants this dream of having electric cars and transportation, he's going to have to make that a priority. That's the number one thing. Energy produced needs to make it to usage points and right now it's not there. Of course, they put billions to build charging stations and they ended up some stupid number like we're going to build 75,000 charging stations in Biden's four years and they've built some ridiculously low number like 50 or something, and the money is gone. So we need more oversight in that. But my number one thing will be energy infrastructure, because everything else is going to depend on that. But my number one thing will be energy infrastructure because everything else is going to depend on that.
Speaker 1:So at the recording of this show, the Fed dropped interest rates by a quarter of a point, and that's a big thing people talk about because they've been very high. Now they're starting to come down and Trump has talked about wanting to have a president given ability to influence or have an opinion about politics, the Fed and the adjusting of interest rates. I'm against that and my reason is the president could use that as a billy club. He could say, hey, I might be raising them next week, maybe I'll lower them, maybe I'll keep them the same, maybe I'll influence the Fed chair to make this change on interest rates. Well, that's going to affect the markets and that would be a huge influence on it.
Speaker 1:I think you try to keep it separately from the administrative branch and let the Fed do it, but I do believe the Fed is corrupt and has their fingers too far into world economies and there's too much of those crazy secret meetings in Switzerland and whatnot, where they all get together. Or where is it in Montana, whatnot? Where they all get together? Or where is it in Montana? All these rich people get together and talk about world economies and that kind of freaks me out.
Speaker 2:No, I agree with you 1,000%. It does feel like a Billy Club effect there and I think that I trust him. I don't think he's corrupt. I think that he's the least corrupt out of anybody that's ran in my lifetime, probably because he's the only non-politician that's ran in the last in my lifetime, probably because, you know, he's the only non-politician that's actually won the election, and so I don't think he would do that. But if you set that for him, then of course, who followed after him and so on would have that capability to use that as a sort of a not a weapon, but just some sort of leverage.
Speaker 2:All I care about is that they go down, and I don't know that they will. But I've got a lot. You know my kids are going to have to buy a house in the next decade and I don't want them to have to buy a house at seven or 8% and I'm watching a lot of the young folks. My fiance's daughter, you know she's right out of school, got a great job, got an awesome college degree, awesome person, hard worker. She's moving up rocket fast in her job but still, you know, considering an entry level position, it's a tough thing for her to realistically buy a house. Can she afford a two thousand dollar house payment? No, she can't. And even if she were to marry and they put their incomes together, it's still going to be a strain. So I think the easing of the interest rates, no matter how it happens, I think that that's something that needs to be sooner than later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Trump will take credit for the drop. I think it's interesting Two days after he won, the rates go down a quarter point. We talked about this a few months ago when I said Trump wanted all interest rate decisions to be made after the election and that's because he'd want to take credit for it. And they had one interest rate cut before the election. They have one two days after he wins in a landslide. You could say that that was influenced by it, that they want to get on his good side. Also, in a past episode of the Carolina Contractor we talked about interest rates dropping.
Speaker 1:Even a full point doesn't mean oh, finally I can go get that house. It's not the be-all, end-all. It's a good thing to have them come down because it makes borrowing money easier and more affordable. But that's not just for buying a house, it's for Donnie Blanchard. When Blanchard Building Company is buying supplies, it means you pay less for it, it means that my store pays less and we can charge other people. Interest rates have so much bigger effect on the general economy than it does just for buying a house. And there's too much focus, in my opinion, on the mortgage rate, because right now I could sell somebody a house and say this house right here, $650,000, interest rate zero. Why? Because the house is really only worth $150,000. Did you get a good deal? No, you got a crappy deal. Lower interest rates benefit so many more sectors and it kind of is a self-leveling thing.
Speaker 2:I've got a mentor who is near and dear to my heart. He's like a dad to me and he basically we spoke right after the election and you know his stocks really jumped to the tune of several thousand dollars and you know he has two daughters who voted the other way and they don't understand his way of thinking and I don't think he understands theirs. But he made the nicest comment ever when he said hey, just wanted to say I hope things get better for you. I hope your interest rate goes down, which will lower your house payment. I hope the cost of your fuel goes down, because that's just going to help all that gas money that you spend to run your kids around. So I think he really hit him with a practical statement that is proven to be true just a day or two after the election. But my hope is it only gets better from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I do feel positive about it. Now, there were several other categories of Trump's platform or the GOP platform we were considering talking about, but time is never our friend, because once we get rolling on things, we run out of time. But I do want to go back to Tuesday night. First of all, when did you feel he's got this and how late did you stay up, donnie?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm not a night owl, so I go hard during the day and I tried my best and I think midnight was as late as I made it and actually fell asleep on my couch, woke up at 1 am and he hadn't locked it down yet and I thought, you know, I bought into the rumor it may take several days to decide who's going to win the presidential election. And of course I woke up about maybe my eyes usually open around 5, 530. And I checked my text message and had, you know, 15 text messages with hearts and American flags and, you know, just fireworks. And so I didn't even have to read the text because I didn't have my glasses on anyway, but didn't have to read the text to know that all is well and, to be honest with you, I went right back to sleep and I slept like a rock just knowing that I actually was very confident.
Speaker 1:In the eight o'clock hour I actually said to my wife. I said, as these numbers come in and it was actually Scott, the Senator from Florida who's never won an election by much more than a half a percentage point and he won like by 10 and I went, oh Lord, this is done. So I was pretty confident before 830 that he had this in the bag. I didn't fall for the other stuff, but I'm also a stat hound. I love looking at statistics and trends and I was very confident what he was going to do. Am I confident of the future four years with him?
Speaker 1:I do think he's mellow. I think a bullet will make you think differently when you see your life go right in front of your eyes. So I think he is maybe chilled out a little bit. The big key is going to be who's he going to put around him, and I hope he doesn't go back to the. That guy's an idiot. Well, you picked him. That lady she's stupid. Well, you picked her. If you're game for it, donnie, next week, maybe we can go a little bit more into some of these topics and then maybe even tie in some things how it really will affect our industry, specifically building supply and building and general contracting in general. You game for that I am.
Speaker 2:I think it's as relevant as any topic can be right now and I say let's do it.
Speaker 1:All right? Well, we will do that. We'll talk more about Trump, his reelection, his third victory in the presidential race. Sorry, I'm just, I just like.
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's okay, we're in agreement we're in agreement.
Speaker 1:If you want to find out more information, go to the website thecarolinacontractorcom. We've got our social media links there to uh previous shows that I've been referencing. You can get them there, and next week we'll do part two of uh what's going to be in a Trump presidency and how it can benefit construction, building and the industries that are related to it in general. So we hope to see you next week on the Carolina contractor show. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the Carolina contractor show. Visit the Carolina contractor.