DONALD TRUMP vs Mitt Romney, Errick Errickson & Others for YOUR PORTFOLIO | Episode 199 - a podcast by Bryan Ellis - SelfDirected.org

Donald Trump racks up more primary victories, and it looks like the GOP establishment, and some Republican party types like Mitt Romney and Erick Erickson are pushing for open revolt.  What does this mean for your portfolio?  I’m Bryan Ellis.  I’ll tell you RIGHT NOW in Episode 199.

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Hello, SDI nation!  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy, self-directed investors like you, where we have one and only one goal and that is to help YOU make great investments that are simple, safe and strong.

Yesterday was the biggest day in the Presidential primary process since Super Tuesday, and again, Donald Trump appears to be an unstoppable force on the Republican side, as is true for the gaffe-prone Hillary Clinton on the Democrat side.

So folks, let’s talk about this like adults, shall we?

I didn’t vote for Donald Trump in the primary in my home state of Georgia.  I did vote for a Republican candidate, but not Trump.  I am a conservative, but I am not a Republican.

I find the whole situation disgusting, to be honest.  What we have is a situation in which Trump, a guy who – whether you love him or hate him – has shown some incredible business acumen over the years, notwithstanding the failure of a few of his businesses.  Note again that I didn’t vote for him, but I do respect much of what he’s accomplished.  I also greatly respect the negotiations philosophy used by his team, as described in detail in the book “Trump Style Negotiation” by his attorney, George Ross.

Anyway, Trump is the CLEAR choice so far in Republican primaries.  There’s a guy on the radio here in Atlanta named Erick Erickson who sometimes gets some face time on Fox News as well.  Erickson is a good example of the foolishness that’s happening right now.  He’s pushing this notion that a majority of people on the Republican side do NOT want Trump to be president because he’s not gotten the majority of the votes in any primary.

Erickson is a fool.  He’s always previously impressed me as a pretty bright guy, but Trump is totally inside his head, living rent free, and dominating Erickson’s thoughts.  It’s a statistical improbability that ANYBODY would get a majority vote in any election when there were as many as 17 different candidates on the ballots to begin with, and in fact, most of those candidates remain on the ballots to this day, despite the fact that many of them have formally dropped out, because those ballots are set months in advance.

Who are the most popular politicians of the last 30 years?  Probably Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.  If Reagan or Clinton were on a ballot with 16 other candidates, those guys wouldn’t get majorities either.

This isn’t a defense of Trump, by the way.  There’s a lot about him that I think is exciting, but there’s a lot about him I think that is terrifying.

And there’s also Mitt Romney, a guy who lost the last election so badly that he should, quite honestly, be ashamed to be seen in public.  Here’s a guy who has been in numerous political races, and has lost every one of them, excepting only his victory to become governor of Massachusetts.  He didn’t run for that seat again, because his approval rating was in the 30% range, placing him at #48 among 50 governors for approval rating.  Point is, Mitt Romney is no political or leadership dynamo, yet he’s out there encouraging people to vote for any candidate but Trump, literally.

The hysteria on the Republican side has been absolutely mind-blowing, and it proves that the job of people in politics is focused on one thing:  Keeping their power.  It’s OVERWHELMINGLY OBVIOUS that Trump is the favored candidate, and yet what you have is a national party making it clear that they hope to re-assign the nomination to someone other than Trump on the basis that THEY don’t like the candidate.

It's insanity, folks.  It’s no less ridiculous on the Democrat side, where even in the states that Hillary Clinton has lost to Bernie Sanders, Clinton has garnered more delegates for the nomination.  The Republican side is full of confusion and power-brokering.  The Democrat side just seems corrupt.

Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, you and I as self-directed investors have some important things to think about.  What would it look like to have a Trump presidency or a Clinton presidency?  Even bigger than that… what happens if the Republican nomination is assigned to somebody other than Trump, proving that the voice of the people is irrelevant in choosing their most powerful leaders?

Nobody knows for sure what the end result of those things will be, but we can make some informed assumptions:

• Hillary Clinton will be like Obama. There’s no evidence to think otherwise.  That means she opposes everything about business, except for the donations she receives from business people.  There will be more illegal immigration, higher taxes and bigger deficits.  But there will be plenty of entitlement programs.
• Trump would be different from Obama in most ways, but we don’t yet know how. I suspect he could be VERY good for the economy, and I suspect he’ll have a substantive impact on stemming the tide of illegal immigration.  I also suspect he’ll end up taking positions as President that he opposed as a candidate in the name of “deal making” or “flexibility” as he calls it.

What does all of this mean for your portfolio?

It’s really rather simple:  More than ever, fundamentals matter.  Your investment choices must fit the “simple, safe and strong” mold – the S3 model that we here at Self Directed Investor Society so strongly espouse.

Why is that?  What if, for example, simplicity doesn’t matter to you… you’re totally fine with making exotic investments or using complicated strategies?

Look, some people are well suited to such, and that’s great.  Like I mentioned to you in episode 198, which you can hear at SDIRadio.com/198, the terms Simple, Safe and Strong, one thing that’s certain is that those terms are flexible, and don’t mean the same for everyone.

But the other thing you learned in that episode is that there’s this thing called Perspective, and sometimes it’s helpful to consider perspectives other than your own.  And in a political environment in which the will of the electorate is being thwarted on both sides of the aisle, it’s simply a dangerous, worrisome environment in which to operate.

And that’s why fundamentals matter so much.  No matter what the state of the economy or political turmoil, real assets have real value.  What is a “real asset”?  Sure, it’s hard assets like real estate or gold, but I think there’s a better definition, and that definition is any asset that is sufficiently valuable that there’s a market for it.

For what kind of assets is there always a market?  Assets that are simple… safe… and strong.

Fundamentals matter more than ever in an environment like we have right now.  Sometimes, you can do “cute” things in your portfolio that work out profitably.  I respectfully submit to you that now is not one of the times when it will be wise to get “cute” with your capital.  Wisdom and perspective must be your guide.

Remember:  You must respect your own capital, because nobody else will.

Folks, can I ask you to stop by iTunes to give this show a 5 star rating, if you like what you hear?  I’d be so grateful.  You can do that at SDIRadio.com/iTunes.

My friends, invest wisely today, and live well forever.

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