Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross says presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump represents the “more radical, new approach to government” that the nation’s economy desperately needs.
While others have faulted Trump’s lack of political correctness, Ross says such brash honesty is what has endeared the real-estate developer to middle-class America.
"Part of the reason why I'm supporting Trump is that I think we need a more radical, new approach to government – at least in the U.S. – from what we've had before," Ross told
CNBC.
"I think the reason why the Trump phenomenon has become so important," says Ross, chairman and chief strategy officer of WL Ross investment company, "is because middle class and lower middle class America has not really benefited by the last 10 to 15 years of economic activity and they're sick and tired of it and they want something different."
Ross said these classes are "sick and tired of political correctness," calling Trump's approach to politics refreshing. "His direction will be a less politically-correct direction," he said. "There is nothing in the direction that he is pointing that is different from the Republican platforms," Ross said.
"You only get to vote for who's on the ballot paper and your choices are between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and I find that an easy choice to make," he said.
"If you add up all the promises any politicians makes, the math doesn't work. Hillary Clinton's math doesn't work, Donald's math probably doesn't work. I think you have to listen to their campaign pitches more as symbolic, more as metaphors."
Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has said a Trump presidency wouldn’t be the blow to U.S. business that some fear,
Bloomberg reported.
“If either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton becomes president, and one of them is very likely to be, I think Berkshire will continue to do fine,” Buffett, 85, said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
The outcome of November’s presidential election is unlikely to change the fact that the U.S. is a “remarkably attractive place in which to conduct a business,” said Buffett, who endorsed Democrat Clinton at an Omaha rally in December. U.S. companies have enjoyed “terrific” returns on equity despite a sustained period of ultra-low interest rates, he added.
Buffett, who has criticized Trump in the past and scorned politicians’ pessimism about the country, looked past the current voter angst for a longer view of U.S. economic prospects.
“Twenty years from now, there’ll be far more output per capita in the United States in real terms than there is now. In 50 years, it’ll be far more,” Buffett said. “No presidential candidate or president is going to end that. They can shape it in ways that are good or bad, but they can’t end it.”
Asked how a Trump presidency might affect Berkshire’s business, Buffett replied, “That won’t be the main problem.” He didn’t elaborate.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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