Q&A of the Day – President Trump’s next steps & the economic impact of policy change
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Hi Brian, I have a 2-fold question. While I have been truly blessed in my life; I was born an American, became a Christian, married my soulmate and had the privilege and honor of serving the United States Army under President Reagan. I am now disillusioned and disheartened that President Trump seemingly had the election stolen by "irregularities" in vote counting on a mass scale in what appear to be strategically placed voting precincts.
Question 1: Does the President have any recourse to expose the truth and hold on to the Presidency? And
Question 2: Do you expect a market selloff if in fact it appears the 2 Senate runoff elections will go in the democrats favor?
All the best and may God save our nation.
Bottom Line: Life is full of irony and the final Electoral College margin, should the states be certified as they sit now, would reflect this: Biden 306, Trump 232. What’s ironic about that total? It’s the exact margin Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by in 2016 – though the composition of states was different. That’s not the end of the irony either. Trump’s win included three states he won with sub-1% margins – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Joe Biden is poised for four sub 1% wins – Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. About now you might be wondering what this has to do with your two questions.
If this is where the dust settles, we will have once again had a very close election where just tens of thousands of votes across a few states out of nearly 150 million cast nationally, will have decided the outcome. Conversely, the election itself via the Electoral College outcome, won’t be all that close. This is where it ties in with your question. Let’s say for a moment that indeed elections were “stolen”. Because of the margin of victory by Biden, you could take the two largest states in question – Pennsylvania & either Georgia or Michigan (they’re both worth 16 votes) – have the results flipped in favor of President Trump and Biden would still win. I hope that reality provides some degree of solace in accepting the outcome should it be settled in Biden’s favor as is almost certain. From there here’s my hope for the future...
The upshot of Florida 2000 was resolve to never find ourselves in that situation again. As a result, a complete overhaul of the way we handle elections was taken on and has culminated in the third most populous state in the union processing a record number of votes in a record amount of time without issue statewide. It’s hard to overstate how great Florida’s handling of this election was independent of 2000 considerations. Hopefully what we’ve witnessed will place pressure on similar reforms in other states as well. Regardless, campaigns will go in with eyes wide open in places like Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Las Vegas in the future. If any misdeeds did take place it’ll be much harder for them to attempt misfeasance in the future.
Regarding the markets...I’ll start by echoing the theme I’ve been sounding since Wednesday. Provided that Republicans hold onto the Senate, which will come down to two Senate races in Georgia on January 5th - in which Republicans must win at least one, they’ll be fine. If there’s good policy in place, markets like gridlock in Washington which they’d have with divided government. If the senate stays with Republican control, the Trump tax cuts remain and the only headwinds become regulations which are industry specific rather than macro concerns. Hopefully this helps & know that the future of your belief system is brighter than it feels currently. I’ll address that more in the days ahead.
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