From Amazon and Apple to Google and Netflix, the leaders of America’s most well-known companies have been flocking to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump for two main reasons, according to Kevin O’Leary.
“This is a phenomenal platform for Trump. Everybody knows he’s pro-business. But as far as those CEOs, there’s two things they care about,” the O’Leary Ventures CEO and chairman said Tuesday on “The Evening Edit.”
“They know with certainty tax rates probably stay at 21%,” he expanded. “But the other thing is deregulation and freedom of speech on social media… So all of a sudden you want to suck up to Trump in a very big way because of two reasons. He’s got the power. He’s got the mandate, he’s got the reach. And no one’s going to touch him for two years.”
President-elect Trump’s electoral victory has led to a surge in confidence about the state of the global economy, according to a new survey that gauged the sentiment of CEOs in the wake of the election.
That sentiment has been backed up by the fact that, in recent weeks, Trump has allegedly met privately with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Sundar Pichai at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
“I don’t care if you’re running a country or you’re a CEO of an S&P 500 company, you’re sucking up and there’s a very important reason for it: power. [Political] majority mandate, there’s nothing like it,” O’Leary said, referencing the Republican Party’s control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and soon the White House.
“You got to talk to the chief and find out what he’s thinking. Because this is a relationship guy. Everybody knows that,” he continued. “And I think this mandate’s going to be way better than the last one, a lot more stable and very good for business. I’m licking my own chops right now. These are good times.”
O’Leary believes executives are most excited about Trump’s potential tax plans.
“They’re sure the existing 21% [corporate tax] platform is going to stick. That’s all they needed to hear. But the added bonus, the extra juice is the deregulation. That’s federal deregulation, particularly on energy independence. I mean, that’s fantastic,” he said.
Expanding on how President Biden was “damaging” to the economy, O’Leary pointed at green energy policies that indirectly fell on individual Americans, “when all of a sudden everything they do costs more, and they can’t make ends meet.”
“America corrected itself very quickly,” Mr. Wonderful said. “The amazing thing about Trump 2.0, I don’t care what sound bite you get, [it] sounds good to me… He sounds pretty rational. He’s really taken it into a new place. And I’m just saying, if you think about it, this is what the people wanted to hear. They gave him the mandate. He’s delivering the mandate, and he’s doing it really quickly.”
FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
