November 11, 2024 • 32 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
The Fox News decision desk cannow officially project that
Donald Trump will become the47th President of the United
States.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello boys, I'm back, I'm back.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So Donnie has something happened recently in
the past couple days.
I don't know what you'retalking about, but everything
sure seems a little lighterthese days.
Yeah, even with us going backan hour and it being darker
earlier in the day, things seemjust a little bit sunnier to me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Would you agree?
Definitely.
And it's not just us, man.
Everywhere you go supply houserestaurants, everybody's just,
even over the phone, people seemto be in a good mood.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The future's so bright.
You got to wear shades kind ofthing going on.
And welcome to the CarolinaContractor Show.
My name's Eric Smith.
I do inside sales with HomeBuilders, supply in Wilson,
greenville.
Donnie Blanchard the other happyguy here among millions of
people the majority of the US, Iwould say Donnie's a general
contractor, also owner of SureTop Roofing, owner of Blanchard
(01:13):
Building Company, and this isour little show we do.
We usually talk specificallyabout your house, like DIY
projects or even building ahouse from scratch from the
ground up, like Donnie does, andways to improve it and things
like that.
But today, with the recentelection or re-election election
of Donald Trump to the WhiteHouse, we're going to kind of go
(01:36):
over some of the things that hehas promised.
Now I haven't talked to you,donnie, but I would assume that,
like the majority of peoplethat voted for him, there were
probably two main things theeconomy and immigration, and
people know his stance on thosetwo things.
But he had some other areaswhere he's taken positions of
(01:58):
what he wants to do once heassumes office again.
For the winning for the thirdtime I'm sorry, did I say that
out loud?
Winning for the second time andwe're going to go over those in
a little bit, but did you haveany categories, donnie, that you
specifically supported Trump on, or why you voted for him,
(02:18):
because it's no secret who hevoted for?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Absolutely To agree with what you just said.
The economy was my hot buttonand I watched my sales not tank,
but we lost about $2 million insales since before the pandemic
and that's really tough to makeup for.
Our overhead almost doubled andit just seemed like every
policy that has been put inplace in the last three and a
half years didn't work for me.
So when we talked about puttingthe show together, I think the
(02:47):
interesting tie-in is we came upwith a lot of facts and a lot
of categories that relate toconstruction and what you know.
We expect, the new, what weexpect not what we expect, but
what he ran on as a campaignpromise and you know, I think we
can tie that all the way backto the 2016 through 2020 and
what he started with then andwhat he's going to pick up, what
he's not going to pick up andwhat he's going to do better
(03:09):
100% and I do think he's moreseasoned as a politician, as a
leader, and I'm hoping he picksbetter people.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It seems so far he has, because we haven't heard
much dirt on him during thecampaign.
That was real and maybe that'sbecause all that dirt has been
revealed.
You know who he is.
So, whether you agree with hischaracter or not, we're not
voting on a date for theValentine's dance.
We're voting for somebody tolead a nation and I'm going to
take the warts and all that comewith someone like that.
(03:38):
But before we jump into the showin detail, I do want to mention
again this is the CarolinaContractor Show.
The website is a great place tofind information about what
we're doing hereTheCarolinaContractorcom.
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 ofthem.
And also, if you have aquestion about the show or you
have a question directly aboutyour house, again, you've got a
(04:00):
general contractor on your sideand Donnie Blanchard so he can
answer your questions.
Just click on the Ask theContractor button.
Also want to mention thatDonnie's a movie star.
He doesn't think he is, buthe'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 (04:21):
We filmed all 10 episodes last year and we
finished in the fall of lastyear and the interesting thing
that happened was A&E Networkfilmed the show.
So we worked with all theproducers, executive producers
from that network, and right atthe very end, hulu swooped in
and bought the rights to theshow.
Hulu reserved the rights todebut the show back in February
(04:41):
and I think that the thing theyhad in place was that had to
wait six or eight months beforeA&E could air the show, because
they wanted to see how themetrics were playing out for
Hulu and which is fair.
But it's taken all this timeand so Saturday, november the
9th, we will air episode one onA&E network at 11 am and they
said that they will air oneepisode a week for 10 weeks and
(05:02):
then I think we're going torerun for about two years, which
is big time because we'll beall over A&E for the next couple
of years and not everybody hasHulu.
No knock on Hulu, but I didn'thave it before the show came out
and I basically got it just towatch our show and check it out.
So I think that we'll get amuch broader audience when it
airs on A&E and I'm lookingforward to that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, so the show again is 50-50 flip and
basically they find houses andthey buy them and then flip them
and they do it in a shortperiod of time.
The reason we also bring it upwas not only Donnie the
on-camera general contractor,they also came in studio and did
a show with us and there's anepisode there where you can see
us Donnie's families in variousparts.
(05:42):
It's a cool show.
We were just very thankful thatthey decided to also do our
show, which they'd done beforeon radio.
But to have them bring in theTV studio from A&E was a pretty
monumental and pretty cool thingto see.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh, that was a big deal If you could see behind the
scenes, and I think on ourInstagram and our Facebook page
I have a couple of videosshowing just how big the
production crew was, and, youknow, kind videos showing just
how big the production crew wasand, um, you know, kind of made
me feel important.
But, um, I forgot to mentionone thing that's important that
it's season two.
So season one there was adifferent guy and he wasn't uh,
I don't think he even had ageneral contractor license and
(06:15):
they only came up with sixepisodes out of 10 for season
one.
It's still pretty darn good.
Dedrick and Crystal did a greatjob.
But season two was my time toshine and they really let me.
They gave me some tough jobsand we flipped 10 houses and I'd
say about six out of the 10were, in terms of difficulty,
some of the hardest renovationsI've ever pulled off.
But, man, they look good andit's really been great for
(06:39):
business and it's been one ofthose things that's very thought
provocative in terms of ideasfor your house.
So encourage everybody to checkit out.
11 o'clock Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Thank you very much.
A&e Television this Saturday isthe debut of season two 50-50
flip.
Let's jump into the big thing.
We're going to talk aboutDonald Trump getting reelected.
Somebody said it was his.
I know I was one of them, butthere's a joke.
He was elected for the thirdtime.
(07:07):
I pointed out that he defeatedtwo presidential candidates in
one race because technically hedefeated Biden and then he
defeated Harris, and you havethat celebratory week if your
candidate wins or if you havesomething that's monumental like
this.
It was Grover Cleveland that wonthe presidency twice, but not
consecutively, so that was inthe late 1800s.
So this is a pretty monumentalthing and also the first time
the Republican candidate won thepopular vote nationwide since
(07:34):
what, I think George W hissecond term, I think won the
national popular vote, but stillit's a big deal.
But regardless of what sideyou'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'regoing to talk about what he has
promised, or maybe, as you said, donnie, what he did his first
(07:56):
term, that he will continue, andmaybe some things that he had
going in his first term that helost, 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 wouldbe energy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean no secret that he really wants to
focus on domestic energyproduction, which is fossil
fuels, and the pipeline got cutoff as soon as he got out of
there and, ironically, theRussian pipeline opened up.
So it's like all these peoplewho were, you know, we could
basically give the fossil fuelsto, we're getting it from
(08:32):
somewhere else, and it just kindof seemed like somebody else
was behind that and I don'tunderstand 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 resultwith the gas prices.
But one of the things he wantsto end is that the regulations
on federal drilling permitsleases anything related to oil
(08:55):
and gas, and that's not justsomething that we picked up off
the Internet, that's straightoff of his website.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So from the horse's mouth, that's a campaign promise
.
Yeah, and I think there's a lotof other regulatory barriers
that we don't know about when itcomes to energy sector, because
drilling for oil or anythingwhere you're going to be
drilling into the ground is kindof like trying to start a
brewery.
There's so many obstacles putin the way for you to start
producing that and distributingit and getting it out there.
And a lot of companies are likeit's not worth the hassle but
(09:29):
being energy independent.
If you want a history lesson,look into Teddy Roosevelt.
He said let the rest of theworld sell us their stuff and
we'll keep ours, and then, whenwe need it, we can tell them to
take a hike.
And this is a time of the worldthat, if we have all the stuff
we need and we can get it, therest of the world has no power
behind us.
So yeah, drill, baby drill, I'mall for that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, energy independence.
I mean, that's a big thing.
I don't know that we've beenenergy independent in a long
time and we're sitting on moreoil reserves than anybody else
in the world and I didn't knowthat until they made that a fact
and I said, hey, what in theworld?
Nothing makes sense about whywe're doing this and I
understand.
I don't understand, but I knowthat they have.
The other side is really pushingfor clean energy and windmills,
(10:13):
solar I'm all about solar, Idon't know about windmills, but
they're against things likenuclear power, which has the
least waste.
It's the cleanest way toproduce power.
But it just seems like it goesagainst common sense.
And I had someone tell me whenI was complaining about the
price of gas going up well, it'sonly $100 a week.
I said, well, yeah, but I havenine trucks on the road, so $100
(10:36):
a week ends up being $4,000 to$5,000 a month for somebody like
me.
And the jobs that I'm doing thismonth I priced out several
months ago.
So where does that money comefrom?
And really it has just forcedus to get creative.
It's forced us to cut ouroverhead way back and really
it's been one of those thingswhen we compete in the
subcontractor world with theroofing or in the contractor
(10:56):
world with the housing.
We're competing with peoplethat don't play by the same
rules.
So things like $4,000 $4,000 amonth just for just for gas
alone, that that's really adagger for somebody with a small
business like mine.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Now I want to interject something.
As some people know you amongthem, donnie my wife is a high
school teacher and she knowshistory and that's what she is,
her forte.
I said Teddy Roosevelt, andshe's in the other room and she
sends me a text and says it wasFDR.
It was Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, not Teddy Roosevelt.
(11:31):
So I'm fine with beingcorrected by her.
Thanks, Kim.
Did you hear that hon?
He thanked you.
She said she heard you.
Thank you.
All right, let's jump to thenext thing environment, and this
ties to energy because, as wesaid before, when you're going
to drill for oil, a lot of thethings that stopped it were
environmental issues and a lotof it was crap.
The Keystone was strictlypolitical.
(11:52):
They use that.
You're going to harm some theway a gray mouse poops in the
trees or something if you buildthis pipeline.
But it was strictly caving toenvironmental extremists, and
some of them are even designatedI don't know if you knew this
as terrorist organizations.
I think the environmental partsthat Trump is for is where
(12:13):
Republicans or conservatives ingeneral 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 todo it.
(12:34):
We're not reckless with it, butthere are some things that he
wants to do, and a lot of that,to me, is going to be into
getting rid of the climatechange agreements and barriers,
because we're saying, oh, theworld's turning into hell.
We can't, you can't have AC andit's going to cost you money
out of your wallet.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, it said that he wanted to dramatically cut the
EPA's budget so that was the waythey worded that and said that
they rolled back more than 100or so environmental rules.
They rolled back more than 100or so environmental rules and
one of the reasons for that isit's sped up permitting on
construction projects, which ishow it ties into my world.
I'm in Burlington and you knowthis.
Alamance County, you knowChatham County, orange County,
(13:15):
wake County are border folks tous and I just want to sing the
praises of Alamance Countybecause they operate with common
sense and you can get it maytake a couple of weeks, but the
right hand knows what the lefthand is doing in the
environmental health department,so you can put an application.
Everything's very streamlined.
And you know most of themunicipalities are going to
(13:36):
portals right now where we haveto do this all online.
You know that's OK for me.
I'm I'm I'm well sort of techsavvy.
But you know I can only imaginea 65, 70 year old contractor
who, you know, not not too goodwith a computer.
He probably pulls his hair outbecause if you get in one of
these surrounding counties, youknow the red tape is just insane
.
And like I said about AlamanceCounty and these surrounded
(14:04):
counties, it's like the righthand doesn't talk to the left
hand, so they don't know.
The entity that you're dealingwith doesn't know what other
people in the department, thesame building, are even doing,
so it's almost like they'rethey're they're putting a policy
in place that they don't evenknow how to enforce.
So for somebody like myself,you just have to please
everybody.
They don't even know how toenforce.
So for somebody like myself,you just have to please
everybody.
And I won't call them out byname either, but just recently
got a permit about a year agothat is in a county next to us,
(14:27):
and it took me four or fivemonths to get that permit.
I've never seen such and it waslittle things like you would
upload it into the portal and itwould be a JPEG image and not a
PDF file and they they wouldreject it.
But you wouldn't know thatuntil you check back.
And they're in the process oftrying to streamline the
contractors to use the portaland that's better for them.
(14:49):
But it's just really muddy inthe meantime and it's tough to
get a permit.
I think all that's just becausethey put all these green
regulations in place and thatcalls for somebody to have a new
job that pays 80 to 100 grand.
And those people, they want toseem relevant.
So they want you to.
They want you to you know seehow important they are and
(15:09):
they're part of the process toapprove or disapprove your
permit.
And I can't say that I disagreewith this in terms of what you
said earlier.
I can't say that I disagreewith this in terms of what you
said earlier.
The whole the climate changething I'm not the guy to say yay
or nay on it, but my gut tellsme it almost seems like a hoax.
It seems like a cause that'snot worth fighting for.
(15:30):
And gosh when, when a hundreddollar grocery trip is all of a
sudden two hundred dollars.
I don't care if it's, if it's aquarter of a degree warmer this
year.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You know I mean address accordingly yeah,
because giving the governmentmore money is not going to
affect the environment.
They're just going to waste iton something else.
Speaking of that, we did awhole show one time on the
Inflation Reduction Act, and wasit going to affect inflation
and reduce it?
And back in September, bidenwas talking and he has these
(15:58):
moments of unintentional honestyor clarity.
He referred to it as theclimate change bill or the green
deal, and he even went on tosay we should have just called
it that, because that's what themoney was for.
So he flat out admitted inSeptember this wasn't going to
do anything for inflation.
Really, it was just a spendingbill for the greenies.
(16:18):
And again, I'm not againstenvironmental controls, I'm not
against doing things thatbenefit it, but I think
conservation, that's a TeddyRoosevelt thing.
Conservative values, if they'retruly done right, are great for
the environment and itsmanagement.
That's what we need.
Let's jump to the hot topicissue that a lot of people voted
(16:40):
Trump for, and this was hisstance on immigration.
We knew this before he ran in2016.
And it seemed like the wall wasthe big thing, but he ran into
a problem and that was a GOP,who could have financed and
helped him wouldn't finance orhelp him really do this wall, so
he tried to take some differentapproaches to it that didn't
(17:00):
fail.
So I think this time maybe willthe GOP help him really fight
illegal immigration.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's hard to say.
He went out with the intentionto build 2,000 miles of border
wall and he ended up coming outof that with about 50, was it 52
miles?
I think is all that he was ableto build because he just ran
into a brick wall.
No pun intended, and you knowthey're really.
I think I think this timearound maybe they'll work with
him.
That leads me to comment on,you know, mass deportations.
(17:29):
I think that he promised thatI'm all about deporting people
who are criminals with acriminal record.
I think that that's that'ssomething that has no place here
.
Criminal record I think thatthat's something that has no
place here.
I also think that there are alot of good folks here and I'm
knee deep in the constructionworld.
There are a lot of good folkshere who really need to be taken
(17:49):
into consideration for just apath to legal citizenship, and
the guys that work for us.
They've all taken that path andit is hard, it takes time, but
they also pay taxes and now theyhave the ability to get a car
loan, get a house loan, and it'slife changing.
So I think just, instead ofjust sending a lot of people out
(18:10):
with no explanation, I thinkthat you vet these folks and if
criminal record you're gone, ifyou shouldn't be here, if you
you know certain things likemaybe you don't speak any
English, you know that makes ita lot harder on you.
If you don't have a skill set,that makes it a lot harder on
you.
So I'm kind of on the fence withthat one, I don't.
The mass deportations, I think,is going to be very complicated
(18:32):
and if you can imagine whatthat looks like, what do you do?
You round up all these peopleinto an area, a big fenced area,
and do you bus them out, do youfly them out?
And are there children involved?
That just gets so messy andmuddy.
And it's no secret thatHispanics are a huge part of the
construction workforce.
And when I say that I preachrespect in my household, I tell
(18:54):
my daughters and my son that hey, you know so many folks, so
many Hispanic folks are greatpeople.
And I think that you know thishas been a hot button for the
election, but I think that itmight have been pitched a little
too aggressively becauserealistically, I don't know how
you solve that one overnight.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I think the first thing is just shut the influx,
just say, all right, we'reshutting the door, we're not
letting people come in and thengo through the process of what
you said you want to get alicense, you want to get this,
but you're undocumented, let'srun some stuff.
If you don't have a criminalrecord, that's a positive thing.
If you're employed, it'spositive.
So there's many things we cando to determine you're out.
(19:37):
You get to stay, but you doneed to go through this certain
pathway, but you've alreadyproven to be a positive,
productive benefit to society.
I hate that position of who'sgoing to do the slave labor if
we don't have the illegalimmigrants.
Have a little respect for thesepeople.
What a leftist mentality.
Well, who's going to do mylaundry?
(19:58):
Who's going to pick my food ifwe get rid of them?
How about pay them, train them,let them come in, vet them?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yep, there's a couple of clips on the internet where
they went to very well-to-doneighborhoods and they asked the
folks where they stood onimmigration policy and
everything and they fullysupported 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'vegot somewhere for them to go.
And they pull up and about 20people jump off of a bus and the
(20:28):
lady says, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't stay
here.
You know, they backed up realquick.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Sort of like some of the politicians.
It's like you know you run forone thing, but when this comes
to your neighborhood, knocks onyour door, you think a whole
different way.
You know, kim and I talk aboutthat being people who want to
help a liberal cause or not evena liberal cause that they're
glad to give money to the soupkitchen.
But if you ask them, do youwant to come down and help make
the meals and serve them?
They're like whoa, that's dirtywork.
I don't do that.
If and serve them, they're likewhoa, that's dirty work.
I don't do that.
If I just throw some money toit, that's a good thing, right.
(21:02):
And that's where the governmentpreys on ignorance yes, give us
money, we'll do it right.
Every time you say, yeah, taxthose rich people ask yourself
how do you benefit?
How do you get anything betterin life when a millionaire, a
billionaire, how do you getanything better in life when a
millionaire, a billionaire,whoever gets more taxes applied
(21:22):
to them?
You never see any benefitbecause the money ain't coming
to you, it's going to thegovernment.
They're going to spend it onother stuff.
I'm off my box.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
No, I agree, I agree.
What's next Infrastructure?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I don't know what you do and you can get some things
started, but I don't know whereyou start and I don't know how
long it's going to take, and Idon't know if you have ideas of
what you think would be a goodstarting point to improve
infrastructure in the US.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, I mean really.
Obviously you drive throughcertain towns and you're
thinking, wow, they need anupgrade here and where are the
tax dollars in this town?
And I just feel like a lot ofthat money is inappropriate.
I think that I think thatinfrastructure bills are out
there, that that are a goodthing, and the high traffic
(22:15):
areas where the big cities are,you know, obviously you have,
you have no choice but to keepthose, keep everything serviced
very well in those areas, butthe trickle down to some of the
lower income counties thatsurround those areas are, I
don't see that money beingallocated in the right way.
And you know infrastructure.
I know that they have a lot ofprograms for minority and women
owned businesses and that's.
That's all fine and good.
But I do believe that there waspart of the area on Trump's
website where he said he wasgoing to cut infrastructure
(22:36):
funding programs for for some ofthese, and some of these were
tied to that Inflation ReductionAct that you mentioned, and I
think that it's one of thosethings where the Republican
Party basically said that theymust return to their roots as a
party of industry, manufacturing, infrastructure and workers,
but they didn't offer any policyspecifics until now.
(22:57):
So I'm anxious.
He hasn't commented a lot onthis one, but I know he knows it
needs attention.
I think that he's going to makeit very fair so that maybe
he'll make it where the morequalified company gets the job.
It's one of those things whereon a great big project, that's
way out of my world, that's notmy competition, that's
competition for the other folkswho operate on a $20 million
(23:18):
scale.
So I'm anxious to see how thatplays out.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I will say one thing when it comes to infrastructure,
especially if Elon Musk isgoing to be on his team in some
way or be active in thepresidential's I don't know if
the presidential cabinet, butthey might form something new is
I'm fine if you want theelectric car, the Tesla and all
that, but the infrastructure isnot there to power it.
So if he wants this dream ofhaving electric cars and
(23:44):
transportation, he's going tohave to make that a priority.
That's the number one thing.
Energy produced needs to makeit to usage points and right now
it's not there.
Of course, they put billions tobuild charging stations and
they ended up some stupid numberlike we're going to build
75,000 charging stations inBiden's four years and they've
(24:06):
built some ridiculously lownumber like 50 or something, and
the money is gone.
So we need more oversight inthat.
But my number one thing will beenergy infrastructure, because
everything else is going todepend on that.
But my number one thing will beenergy infrastructure because
everything else is going todepend on that.
So at the recording of this show, the Fed dropped interest rates
(24:27):
by a quarter of a point, andthat's a big thing people talk
about because they've been veryhigh.
Now they're starting to comedown and Trump has talked about
wanting to have a presidentgiven ability to influence or
have an opinion about politics,the Fed and the adjusting of
(24:47):
interest rates.
I'm against that and my reasonis the president could use that
as a billy club.
He could say, hey, I might beraising them next week, maybe
I'll lower them, maybe I'll keepthem the same, maybe I'll
influence the Fed chair to makethis change on interest rates.
Well, that's going to affectthe markets and that would be a
(25:08):
huge influence on it.
I think you try to keep itseparately from the
administrative branch and letthe Fed do it, but I do believe
the Fed is corrupt and has theirfingers too far into world
economies and there's too muchof those crazy secret meetings
in Switzerland and whatnot,where they all get together.
(25:29):
Or where is it in Montana,whatnot?
Where they all get together?
Or where is it in Montana?
All these rich people gettogether and talk about world
economies and that kind offreaks me out.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
No, I agree with you 1,000%.
It does feel like a Billy Clubeffect there and I think that I
trust him.
I don't think he's corrupt.
I think that he's the leastcorrupt out of anybody that's
ran in my lifetime, probablybecause he's the only
non-politician that's ran in thelast in my lifetime, probably
because, you know, he's the onlynon-politician that's actually
won the election, and so I don'tthink he would do that.
But if you set that for him,then of course, who followed
(25:59):
after him and so on would havethat capability to use that as a
sort of a not a weapon, butjust some sort of leverage.
All I care about is that they godown, and I don't know that
they will.
But I've got a lot.
You know my kids are going tohave to buy a house in the next
decade and I don't want them tohave to buy a house at seven or
8% and I'm watching a lot of theyoung folks.
(26:21):
My fiance's daughter, you knowshe's right out of school, got a
great job, got an awesomecollege degree, awesome person,
hard worker.
She's moving up rocket fast inher job but still, you know,
considering an entry levelposition, it's a tough thing for
her to realistically buy ahouse.
Can she afford a two thousanddollar house payment?
(26:41):
No, she can't.
And even if she were to marryand they put their incomes
together, it's still going to bea strain.
So I think the easing of theinterest rates, no matter how it
happens, I think that that'ssomething that needs to be
sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, and Trump will take credit for the drop.
I think it's interesting Twodays after he won, the rates go
down a quarter point.
We talked about this a fewmonths ago when I said Trump
wanted all interest ratedecisions to be made after the
election and that's because he'dwant to take credit for it.
And they had one interest ratecut before the election.
(27:20):
They have one two days after hewins in a landslide.
You could say that that wasinfluenced by it, that they want
to get on his good side.
Also, in a past episode of theCarolina Contractor we talked
about interest rates dropping.
Even a full point doesn't meanoh, finally I can go get that
house.
It's not the be-all, end-all.
(27:42):
It's a good thing to have themcome down because it makes
borrowing money easier and moreaffordable.
But that's not just for buyinga house, it's for Donnie
Blanchard.
When Blanchard Building Companyis buying supplies, it means
you pay less for it, it meansthat my store pays less and we
can charge other people.
Interest rates have so muchbigger effect on the general
(28:05):
economy than it does just forbuying a house.
And there's too much focus, inmy opinion, on the mortgage rate
, because right now I could sellsomebody a house and say this
house right here, $650,000,interest rate zero.
Why?
Because the house is reallyonly worth $150,000.
Did you get a good deal?
No, you got a crappy deal.
Lower interest rates benefit somany more sectors and it kind
(28:30):
of is a self-leveling thing.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I've got a mentor who is near and dear to my heart.
He's like a dad to me and hebasically we spoke right after
the election and you know hisstocks really jumped to the tune
of several thousand dollars andyou know he has two daughters
who voted the other way and theydon't understand his way of
thinking and I don't think heunderstands theirs.
But he made the nicest commentever when he said hey, just
(28:56):
wanted to say I hope things getbetter for you.
I hope your interest rate goesdown, which will lower your
house payment.
I hope the cost of your fuelgoes down, because that's just
going to help all that gas moneythat you spend to run your kids
around.
So I think he really hit himwith a practical statement that
is proven to be true just a dayor two after the election.
But my hope is it only getsbetter from here.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and I do feel positive about it.
Now, there were several othercategories of Trump's platform
or the GOP platform we wereconsidering 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 toTuesday night.
First of all, when did you feelhe's got this and how late did
(29:43):
you stay up, donnie?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh, I'm not a night owl, so I go hard during the day
and I tried my best and I thinkmidnight was as late as I made
it and actually fell asleep onmy couch, woke up at 1 am and he
hadn't locked it down yet and Ithought, you know, I bought
into the rumor it may takeseveral days to decide who's
going to win the presidentialelection.
And of course I woke up aboutmaybe my eyes usually open
(30:09):
around 5, 530.
And I checked my text messageand had, you know, 15 text
messages with hearts andAmerican flags and, you know,
just fireworks.
And so I didn't even have toread the text because I didn't
have my glasses on anyway, butdidn't have to read the text to
know that all is well and, to behonest with you, I went right
back to sleep and I slept like arock just knowing that I
(30:30):
actually was very confident.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
In the eight o'clock hour I actually said to my wife.
I said, as these numbers comein and it was actually Scott,
the Senator from Florida who'snever won an election by much
more than a half a percentagepoint and he won like by 10 and
I went, oh Lord, this is done.
So I was pretty confidentbefore 830 that he had this in
the bag.
I didn't fall for the otherstuff, but I'm also a stat hound
(30:54):
.
I love looking at statisticsand trends and I was very
confident what he was going todo.
Am I confident of the futurefour years with him?
I do think he's mellow.
I think a bullet will make youthink differently when you see
your life go right in front ofyour eyes.
So I think he is maybe chilledout a little bit.
(31:15):
The big key is going to bewho's he going to put around him
, and I hope he doesn't go backto 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 ofthese topics and then maybe even
tie in some things how itreally will affect our industry,
(31:38):
specifically building supplyand building and general
contracting in general.
You game for that I am.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think it's as relevant as any topic can be
right now and I say let's do it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
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 (31:59):
Oh no, that's okay, we're in agreement we're in
agreement.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
If you want to find out more information, go to the
website thecarolinacontractorcom.
We've got our social medialinks there to uh previous shows
that I've been referencing.
You can get them there, andnext week we'll do part two of
uh what's going to be in a Trumppresidency and how it can
benefit construction, buildingand the industries that are
related to it in general.
So we hope to see you next weekon the Carolina contractor show
(32:24):
.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina contractor show.
Visit the Carolina contractor.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
The Fox News decision desk cannow officially project that
Donald Trump will become the47th President of the United
States.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello boys, I'm back, I'm back.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So Donnie has something happened recently in
the past couple days.
I don't know what you'retalking about, but everything
sure seems a little lighterthese days.
Yeah, even with us going backan hour and it being darker
earlier in the day, things seemjust a little bit sunnier to me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Would you agree?
Definitely.
And it's not just us, man.
Everywhere you go supply houserestaurants, everybody's just,
even over the phone, people seemto be in a good mood.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The future's so bright.
You got to wear shades kind ofthing going on.
And welcome to the CarolinaContractor Show.
My name's Eric Smith.
I do inside sales with HomeBuilders, supply in Wilson,
greenville.
Donnie Blanchard the other happyguy here among millions of
people the majority of the US, Iwould say Donnie's a general
contractor, also owner of SureTop Roofing, owner of Blanchard
(01:13):
Building Company, and this isour little show we do.
We usually talk specificallyabout your house, like DIY
projects or even building ahouse from scratch from the
ground up, like Donnie does, andways to improve it and things
like that.
But today, with the recentelection or re-election election
of Donald Trump to the WhiteHouse, we're going to kind of go
(01:36):
over some of the things that hehas promised.
Now I haven't talked to you,donnie, but I would assume that,
like the majority of peoplethat voted for him, there were
probably two main things theeconomy and immigration, and
people know his stance on thosetwo things.
But he had some other areaswhere he's taken positions of
(01:58):
what he wants to do once heassumes office again.
For the winning for the thirdtime I'm sorry, did I say that
out loud?
Winning for the second time andwe're going to go over those in
a little bit, but did you haveany categories, donnie, that you
specifically supported Trump on, or why you voted for him,
(02:18):
because it's no secret who hevoted for?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Absolutely To agree with what you just said.
The economy was my hot buttonand I watched my sales not tank,
but we lost about $2 million insales since before the pandemic
and that's really tough to makeup for.
Our overhead almost doubled andit just seemed like every
policy that has been put inplace in the last three and a
half years didn't work for me.
So when we talked about puttingthe show together, I think the
(02:47):
interesting tie-in is we came upwith a lot of facts and a lot
of categories that relate toconstruction and what you know.
We expect, the new, what weexpect not what we expect, but
what he ran on as a campaignpromise and you know, I think we
can tie that all the way backto the 2016 through 2020 and
what he started with then andwhat he's going to pick up, what
he's not going to pick up andwhat he's going to do better
(03:09):
100% and I do think he's moreseasoned as a politician, as a
leader, and I'm hoping he picksbetter people.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It seems so far he has, because we haven't heard
much dirt on him during thecampaign.
That was real and maybe that'sbecause all that dirt has been
revealed.
You know who he is.
So, whether you agree with hischaracter or not, we're not
voting on a date for theValentine's dance.
We're voting for somebody tolead a nation and I'm going to
take the warts and all that comewith someone like that.
(03:38):
But before we jump into the showin detail, I do want to mention
again this is the CarolinaContractor Show.
The website is a great place tofind information about what
we're doing hereTheCarolinaContractorcom.
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 ofthem.
And also, if you have aquestion about the show or you
have a question directly aboutyour house, again, you've got a
(04:00):
general contractor on your sideand Donnie Blanchard so he can
answer your questions.
Just click on the Ask theContractor button.
Also want to mention thatDonnie's a movie star.
He doesn't think he is, buthe'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 (04:21):
We filmed all 10 episodes last year and we
finished in the fall of lastyear and the interesting thing
that happened was A&E Networkfilmed the show.
So we worked with all theproducers, executive producers
from that network, and right atthe very end, hulu swooped in
and bought the rights to theshow.
Hulu reserved the rights todebut the show back in February
(04:41):
and I think that the thing theyhad in place was that had to
wait six or eight months beforeA&E could air the show, because
they wanted to see how themetrics were playing out for
Hulu and which is fair.
But it's taken all this timeand so Saturday, november the
9th, we will air episode one onA&E network at 11 am and they
said that they will air oneepisode a week for 10 weeks and
(05:02):
then I think we're going torerun for about two years, which
is big time because we'll beall over A&E for the next couple
of years and not everybody hasHulu.
No knock on Hulu, but I didn'thave it before the show came out
and I basically got it just towatch our show and check it out.
So I think that we'll get amuch broader audience when it
airs on A&E and I'm lookingforward to that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, so the show again is 50-50 flip and
basically they find houses andthey buy them and then flip them
and they do it in a shortperiod of time.
The reason we also bring it upwas not only Donnie the
on-camera general contractor,they also came in studio and did
a show with us and there's anepisode there where you can see
us Donnie's families in variousparts.
(05:42):
It's a cool show.
We were just very thankful thatthey decided to also do our
show, which they'd done beforeon radio.
But to have them bring in theTV studio from A&E was a pretty
monumental and pretty cool thingto see.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh, that was a big deal If you could see behind the
scenes, and I think on ourInstagram and our Facebook page
I have a couple of videosshowing just how big the
production crew was, and, youknow, kind videos showing just
how big the production crew wasand, um, you know, kind of made
me feel important.
But, um, I forgot to mentionone thing that's important that
it's season two.
So season one there was adifferent guy and he wasn't uh,
I don't think he even had ageneral contractor license and
(06:15):
they only came up with sixepisodes out of 10 for season
one.
It's still pretty darn good.
Dedrick and Crystal did a greatjob.
But season two was my time toshine and they really let me.
They gave me some tough jobsand we flipped 10 houses and I'd
say about six out of the 10were, in terms of difficulty,
some of the hardest renovationsI've ever pulled off.
But, man, they look good andit's really been great for
(06:39):
business and it's been one ofthose things that's very thought
provocative in terms of ideasfor your house.
So encourage everybody to checkit out.
11 o'clock Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Thank you very much.
A&e Television this Saturday isthe debut of season two 50-50
flip.
Let's jump into the big thing.
We're going to talk aboutDonald Trump getting reelected.
Somebody said it was his.
I know I was one of them, butthere's a joke.
He was elected for the thirdtime.
(07:07):
I pointed out that he defeatedtwo presidential candidates in
one race because technically hedefeated Biden and then he
defeated Harris, and you havethat celebratory week if your
candidate wins or if you havesomething that's monumental like
this.
It was Grover Cleveland that wonthe presidency twice, but not
consecutively, so that was inthe late 1800s.
So this is a pretty monumentalthing and also the first time
the Republican candidate won thepopular vote nationwide since
(07:34):
what, I think George W hissecond term, I think won the
national popular vote, but stillit's a big deal.
But regardless of what sideyou'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'regoing to talk about what he has
promised, or maybe, as you said, donnie, what he did his first
(07:56):
term, that he will continue, andmaybe some things that he had
going in his first term that helost, 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 wouldbe energy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean no secret that he really wants to
focus on domestic energyproduction, which is fossil
fuels, and the pipeline got cutoff as soon as he got out of
there and, ironically, theRussian pipeline opened up.
So it's like all these peoplewho were, you know, we could
basically give the fossil fuelsto, we're getting it from
(08:32):
somewhere else, and it just kindof seemed like somebody else
was behind that and I don'tunderstand 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 resultwith the gas prices.
But one of the things he wantsto end is that the regulations
on federal drilling permitsleases anything related to oil
(08:55):
and gas, and that's not justsomething that we picked up off
the Internet, that's straightoff of his website.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So from the horse's mouth, that's a campaign promise
.
Yeah, and I think there's a lotof other regulatory barriers
that we don't know about when itcomes to energy sector, because
drilling for oil or anythingwhere you're going to be
drilling into the ground is kindof like trying to start a
brewery.
There's so many obstacles putin the way for you to start
producing that and distributingit and getting it out there.
And a lot of companies are likeit's not worth the hassle but
(09:29):
being energy independent.
If you want a history lesson,look into Teddy Roosevelt.
He said let the rest of theworld sell us their stuff and
we'll keep ours, and then, whenwe need it, we can tell them to
take a hike.
And this is a time of the worldthat, if we have all the stuff
we need and we can get it, therest of the world has no power
behind us.
So yeah, drill, baby drill, I'mall for that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, energy independence.
I mean, that's a big thing.
I don't know that we've beenenergy independent in a long
time and we're sitting on moreoil reserves than anybody else
in the world and I didn't knowthat until they made that a fact
and I said, hey, what in theworld?
Nothing makes sense about whywe're doing this and I
understand.
I don't understand, but I knowthat they have.
The other side is really pushingfor clean energy and windmills,
(10:13):
solar I'm all about solar, Idon't know about windmills, but
they're against things likenuclear power, which has the
least waste.
It's the cleanest way toproduce power.
But it just seems like it goesagainst common sense.
And I had someone tell me whenI was complaining about the
price of gas going up well, it'sonly $100 a week.
I said, well, yeah, but I havenine trucks on the road, so $100
(10:36):
a week ends up being $4,000 to$5,000 a month for somebody like
me.
And the jobs that I'm doing thismonth I priced out several
months ago.
So where does that money comefrom?
And really it has just forcedus to get creative.
It's forced us to cut ouroverhead way back and really
it's been one of those thingswhen we compete in the
subcontractor world with theroofing or in the contractor
(10:56):
world with the housing.
We're competing with peoplethat don't play by the same
rules.
So things like $4,000 $4,000 amonth just for just for gas
alone, that that's really adagger for somebody with a small
business like mine.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Now I want to interject something.
As some people know you amongthem, donnie my wife is a high
school teacher and she knowshistory and that's what she is,
her forte.
I said Teddy Roosevelt, andshe's in the other room and she
sends me a text and says it wasFDR.
It was Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, not Teddy Roosevelt.
(11:31):
So I'm fine with beingcorrected by her.
Thanks, Kim.
Did you hear that hon?
He thanked you.
She said she heard you.
Thank you.
All right, let's jump to thenext thing environment, and this
ties to energy because, as wesaid before, when you're going
to drill for oil, a lot of thethings that stopped it were
environmental issues and a lotof it was crap.
The Keystone was strictlypolitical.
(11:52):
They use that.
You're going to harm some theway a gray mouse poops in the
trees or something if you buildthis pipeline.
But it was strictly caving toenvironmental extremists, and
some of them are even designatedI don't know if you knew this
as terrorist organizations.
I think the environmental partsthat Trump is for is where
(12:13):
Republicans or conservatives ingeneral 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 todo it.
(12:34):
We're not reckless with it, butthere are some things that he
wants to do, and a lot of that,to me, is going to be into
getting rid of the climatechange agreements and barriers,
because we're saying, oh, theworld's turning into hell.
We can't, you can't have AC andit's going to cost you money
out of your wallet.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, it said that he wanted to dramatically cut the
EPA's budget so that was the waythey worded that and said that
they rolled back more than 100or so environmental rules.
They rolled back more than 100or so environmental rules and
one of the reasons for that isit's sped up permitting on
construction projects, which ishow it ties into my world.
I'm in Burlington and you knowthis.
Alamance County, you knowChatham County, orange County,
(13:15):
wake County are border folks tous and I just want to sing the
praises of Alamance Countybecause they operate with common
sense and you can get it maytake a couple of weeks, but the
right hand knows what the lefthand is doing in the
environmental health department,so you can put an application.
Everything's very streamlined.
And you know most of themunicipalities are going to
(13:36):
portals right now where we haveto do this all online.
You know that's OK for me.
I'm I'm I'm well sort of techsavvy.
But you know I can only imaginea 65, 70 year old contractor
who, you know, not not too goodwith a computer.
He probably pulls his hair outbecause if you get in one of
these surrounding counties, youknow the red tape is just insane
.
And like I said about AlamanceCounty and these surrounded
(14:04):
counties, it's like the righthand doesn't talk to the left
hand, so they don't know.
The entity that you're dealingwith doesn't know what other
people in the department, thesame building, are even doing,
so it's almost like they'rethey're they're putting a policy
in place that they don't evenknow how to enforce.
So for somebody like myself,you just have to please
everybody.
They don't even know how toenforce.
So for somebody like myself,you just have to please
everybody.
And I won't call them out byname either, but just recently
got a permit about a year agothat is in a county next to us,
(14:27):
and it took me four or fivemonths to get that permit.
I've never seen such and it waslittle things like you would
upload it into the portal and itwould be a JPEG image and not a
PDF file and they they wouldreject it.
But you wouldn't know thatuntil you check back.
And they're in the process oftrying to streamline the
contractors to use the portaland that's better for them.
(14:49):
But it's just really muddy inthe meantime and it's tough to
get a permit.
I think all that's just becausethey put all these green
regulations in place and thatcalls for somebody to have a new
job that pays 80 to 100 grand.
And those people, they want toseem relevant.
So they want you to.
They want you to you know seehow important they are and
(15:09):
they're part of the process toapprove or disapprove your
permit.
And I can't say that I disagreewith this in terms of what you
said earlier.
I can't say that I disagreewith this in terms of what you
said earlier.
The whole the climate changething I'm not the guy to say yay
or nay on it, but my gut tellsme it almost seems like a hoax.
It seems like a cause that'snot worth fighting for.
(15:30):
And gosh when, when a hundreddollar grocery trip is all of a
sudden two hundred dollars.
I don't care if it's, if it's aquarter of a degree warmer this
year.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You know I mean address accordingly yeah,
because giving the governmentmore money is not going to
affect the environment.
They're just going to waste iton something else.
Speaking of that, we did awhole show one time on the
Inflation Reduction Act, and wasit going to affect inflation
and reduce it?
And back in September, bidenwas talking and he has these
(15:58):
moments of unintentional honestyor clarity.
He referred to it as theclimate change bill or the green
deal, and he even went on tosay we should have just called
it that, because that's what themoney was for.
So he flat out admitted inSeptember this wasn't going to
do anything for inflation.
Really, it was just a spendingbill for the greenies.
(16:18):
And again, I'm not againstenvironmental controls, I'm not
against doing things thatbenefit it, but I think
conservation, that's a TeddyRoosevelt thing.
Conservative values, if they'retruly done right, are great for
the environment and itsmanagement.
That's what we need.
Let's jump to the hot topicissue that a lot of people voted
(16:40):
Trump for, and this was hisstance on immigration.
We knew this before he ran in2016.
And it seemed like the wall wasthe big thing, but he ran into
a problem and that was a GOP,who could have financed and
helped him wouldn't finance orhelp him really do this wall, so
he tried to take some differentapproaches to it that didn't
(17:00):
fail.
So I think this time maybe willthe GOP help him really fight
illegal immigration.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's hard to say.
He went out with the intentionto build 2,000 miles of border
wall and he ended up coming outof that with about 50, was it 52
miles?
I think is all that he was ableto build because he just ran
into a brick wall.
No pun intended, and you knowthey're really.
I think I think this timearound maybe they'll work with
him.
That leads me to comment on,you know, mass deportations.
(17:29):
I think that he promised thatI'm all about deporting people
who are criminals with acriminal record.
I think that that's that'ssomething that has no place here
.
Criminal record I think thatthat's something that has no
place here.
I also think that there are alot of good folks here and I'm
knee deep in the constructionworld.
There are a lot of good folkshere who really need to be taken
(17:49):
into consideration for just apath to legal citizenship, and
the guys that work for us.
They've all taken that path andit is hard, it takes time, but
they also pay taxes and now theyhave the ability to get a car
loan, get a house loan, and it'slife changing.
So I think just, instead ofjust sending a lot of people out
(18:10):
with no explanation, I thinkthat you vet these folks and if
criminal record you're gone, ifyou shouldn't be here, if you
you know certain things likemaybe you don't speak any
English, you know that makes ita lot harder on you.
If you don't have a skill set,that makes it a lot harder on
you.
So I'm kind of on the fence withthat one, I don't.
The mass deportations, I think,is going to be very complicated
(18:32):
and if you can imagine whatthat looks like, what do you do?
You round up all these peopleinto an area, a big fenced area,
and do you bus them out, do youfly them out?
And are there children involved?
That just gets so messy andmuddy.
And it's no secret thatHispanics are a huge part of the
construction workforce.
And when I say that I preachrespect in my household, I tell
(18:54):
my daughters and my son that hey, you know so many folks, so
many Hispanic folks are greatpeople.
And I think that you know thishas been a hot button for the
election, but I think that itmight have been pitched a little
too aggressively becauserealistically, I don't know how
you solve that one overnight.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I think the first thing is just shut the influx,
just say, all right, we'reshutting the door, we're not
letting people come in and thengo through the process of what
you said you want to get alicense, you want to get this,
but you're undocumented, let'srun some stuff.
If you don't have a criminalrecord, that's a positive thing.
If you're employed, it'spositive.
So there's many things we cando to determine you're out.
(19:37):
You get to stay, but you doneed to go through this certain
pathway, but you've alreadyproven to be a positive,
productive benefit to society.
I hate that position of who'sgoing to do the slave labor if
we don't have the illegalimmigrants.
Have a little respect for thesepeople.
What a leftist mentality.
Well, who's going to do mylaundry?
(19:58):
Who's going to pick my food ifwe get rid of them?
How about pay them, train them,let them come in, vet them?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yep, there's a couple of clips on the internet where
they went to very well-to-doneighborhoods and they asked the
folks where they stood onimmigration policy and
everything and they fullysupported 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'vegot somewhere for them to go.
And they pull up and about 20people jump off of a bus and the
(20:28):
lady says, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't stay
here.
You know, they backed up realquick.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Sort of like some of the politicians.
It's like you know you run forone thing, but when this comes
to your neighborhood, knocks onyour door, you think a whole
different way.
You know, kim and I talk aboutthat being people who want to
help a liberal cause or not evena liberal cause that they're
glad to give money to the soupkitchen.
But if you ask them, do youwant to come down and help make
the meals and serve them?
They're like whoa, that's dirtywork.
I don't do that.
If and serve them, they're likewhoa, that's dirty work.
I don't do that.
If I just throw some money toit, that's a good thing, right.
(21:02):
And that's where the governmentpreys on ignorance yes, give us
money, we'll do it right.
Every time you say, yeah, taxthose rich people ask yourself
how do you benefit?
How do you get anything betterin life when a millionaire, a
billionaire, how do you getanything better in life when a
millionaire, a billionaire,whoever gets more taxes applied
(21:22):
to them?
You never see any benefitbecause the money ain't coming
to you, it's going to thegovernment.
They're going to spend it onother stuff.
I'm off my box.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
No, I agree, I agree.
What's next Infrastructure?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I don't know what you do and you can get some things
started, but I don't know whereyou start and I don't know how
long it's going to take, and Idon't know if you have ideas of
what you think would be a goodstarting point to improve
infrastructure in the US.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, I mean really.
Obviously you drive throughcertain towns and you're
thinking, wow, they need anupgrade here and where are the
tax dollars in this town?
And I just feel like a lot ofthat money is inappropriate.
I think that I think thatinfrastructure bills are out
there, that that are a goodthing, and the high traffic
(22:15):
areas where the big cities are,you know, obviously you have,
you have no choice but to keepthose, keep everything serviced
very well in those areas, butthe trickle down to some of the
lower income counties thatsurround those areas are, I
don't see that money beingallocated in the right way.
And you know infrastructure.
I know that they have a lot ofprograms for minority and women
owned businesses and that's.
That's all fine and good.
But I do believe that there waspart of the area on Trump's
website where he said he wasgoing to cut infrastructure
(22:36):
funding programs for for some ofthese, and some of these were
tied to that Inflation ReductionAct that you mentioned, and I
think that it's one of thosethings where the Republican
Party basically said that theymust return to their roots as a
party of industry, manufacturing, infrastructure and workers,
but they didn't offer any policyspecifics until now.
(22:57):
So I'm anxious.
He hasn't commented a lot onthis one, but I know he knows it
needs attention.
I think that he's going to makeit very fair so that maybe
he'll make it where the morequalified company gets the job.
It's one of those things whereon a great big project, that's
way out of my world, that's notmy competition, that's
competition for the other folkswho operate on a $20 million
(23:18):
scale.
So I'm anxious to see how thatplays out.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I will say one thing when it comes to infrastructure,
especially if Elon Musk isgoing to be on his team in some
way or be active in thepresidential's I don't know if
the presidential cabinet, butthey might form something new is
I'm fine if you want theelectric car, the Tesla and all
that, but the infrastructure isnot there to power it.
So if he wants this dream ofhaving electric cars and
(23:44):
transportation, he's going tohave to make that a priority.
That's the number one thing.
Energy produced needs to makeit to usage points and right now
it's not there.
Of course, they put billions tobuild charging stations and
they ended up some stupid numberlike we're going to build
75,000 charging stations inBiden's four years and they've
(24:06):
built some ridiculously lownumber like 50 or something, and
the money is gone.
So we need more oversight inthat.
But my number one thing will beenergy infrastructure, because
everything else is going todepend on that.
But my number one thing will beenergy infrastructure because
everything else is going todepend on that.
So at the recording of this show, the Fed dropped interest rates
(24:27):
by a quarter of a point, andthat's a big thing people talk
about because they've been veryhigh.
Now they're starting to comedown and Trump has talked about
wanting to have a presidentgiven ability to influence or
have an opinion about politics,the Fed and the adjusting of
(24:47):
interest rates.
I'm against that and my reasonis the president could use that
as a billy club.
He could say, hey, I might beraising them next week, maybe
I'll lower them, maybe I'll keepthem the same, maybe I'll
influence the Fed chair to makethis change on interest rates.
Well, that's going to affectthe markets and that would be a
(25:08):
huge influence on it.
I think you try to keep itseparately from the
administrative branch and letthe Fed do it, but I do believe
the Fed is corrupt and has theirfingers too far into world
economies and there's too muchof those crazy secret meetings
in Switzerland and whatnot,where they all get together.
(25:29):
Or where is it in Montana,whatnot?
Where they all get together?
Or where is it in Montana?
All these rich people gettogether and talk about world
economies and that kind offreaks me out.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
No, I agree with you 1,000%.
It does feel like a Billy Clubeffect there and I think that I
trust him.
I don't think he's corrupt.
I think that he's the leastcorrupt out of anybody that's
ran in my lifetime, probablybecause he's the only
non-politician that's ran in thelast in my lifetime, probably
because, you know, he's the onlynon-politician that's actually
won the election, and so I don'tthink he would do that.
But if you set that for him,then of course, who followed
(25:59):
after him and so on would havethat capability to use that as a
sort of a not a weapon, butjust some sort of leverage.
All I care about is that they godown, and I don't know that
they will.
But I've got a lot.
You know my kids are going tohave to buy a house in the next
decade and I don't want them tohave to buy a house at seven or
8% and I'm watching a lot of theyoung folks.
(26:21):
My fiance's daughter, you knowshe's right out of school, got a
great job, got an awesomecollege degree, awesome person,
hard worker.
She's moving up rocket fast inher job but still, you know,
considering an entry levelposition, it's a tough thing for
her to realistically buy ahouse.
Can she afford a two thousanddollar house payment?
(26:41):
No, she can't.
And even if she were to marryand they put their incomes
together, it's still going to bea strain.
So I think the easing of theinterest rates, no matter how it
happens, I think that that'ssomething that needs to be
sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, and Trump will take credit for the drop.
I think it's interesting Twodays after he won, the rates go
down a quarter point.
We talked about this a fewmonths ago when I said Trump
wanted all interest ratedecisions to be made after the
election and that's because he'dwant to take credit for it.
And they had one interest ratecut before the election.
(27:20):
They have one two days after hewins in a landslide.
You could say that that wasinfluenced by it, that they want
to get on his good side.
Also, in a past episode of theCarolina Contractor we talked
about interest rates dropping.
Even a full point doesn't meanoh, finally I can go get that
house.
It's not the be-all, end-all.
(27:42):
It's a good thing to have themcome down because it makes
borrowing money easier and moreaffordable.
But that's not just for buyinga house, it's for Donnie
Blanchard.
When Blanchard Building Companyis buying supplies, it means
you pay less for it, it meansthat my store pays less and we
can charge other people.
Interest rates have so muchbigger effect on the general
(28:05):
economy than it does just forbuying a house.
And there's too much focus, inmy opinion, on the mortgage rate
, because right now I could sellsomebody a house and say this
house right here, $650,000,interest rate zero.
Why?
Because the house is reallyonly worth $150,000.
Did you get a good deal?
No, you got a crappy deal.
Lower interest rates benefit somany more sectors and it kind
(28:30):
of is a self-leveling thing.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I've got a mentor who is near and dear to my heart.
He's like a dad to me and hebasically we spoke right after
the election and you know hisstocks really jumped to the tune
of several thousand dollars andyou know he has two daughters
who voted the other way and theydon't understand his way of
thinking and I don't think heunderstands theirs.
But he made the nicest commentever when he said hey, just
(28:56):
wanted to say I hope things getbetter for you.
I hope your interest rate goesdown, which will lower your
house payment.
I hope the cost of your fuelgoes down, because that's just
going to help all that gas moneythat you spend to run your kids
around.
So I think he really hit himwith a practical statement that
is proven to be true just a dayor two after the election.
But my hope is it only getsbetter from here.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and I do feel positive about it.
Now, there were several othercategories of Trump's platform
or the GOP platform we wereconsidering 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 toTuesday night.
First of all, when did you feelhe's got this and how late did
(29:43):
you stay up, donnie?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh, I'm not a night owl, so I go hard during the day
and I tried my best and I thinkmidnight was as late as I made
it and actually fell asleep onmy couch, woke up at 1 am and he
hadn't locked it down yet and Ithought, you know, I bought
into the rumor it may takeseveral days to decide who's
going to win the presidentialelection.
And of course I woke up aboutmaybe my eyes usually open
(30:09):
around 5, 530.
And I checked my text messageand had, you know, 15 text
messages with hearts andAmerican flags and, you know,
just fireworks.
And so I didn't even have toread the text because I didn't
have my glasses on anyway, butdidn't have to read the text to
know that all is well and, to behonest with you, I went right
back to sleep and I slept like arock just knowing that I
(30:30):
actually was very confident.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
In the eight o'clock hour I actually said to my wife.
I said, as these numbers comein and it was actually Scott,
the Senator from Florida who'snever won an election by much
more than a half a percentagepoint and he won like by 10 and
I went, oh Lord, this is done.
So I was pretty confidentbefore 830 that he had this in
the bag.
I didn't fall for the otherstuff, but I'm also a stat hound
(30:54):
.
I love looking at statisticsand trends and I was very
confident what he was going todo.
Am I confident of the futurefour years with him?
I do think he's mellow.
I think a bullet will make youthink differently when you see
your life go right in front ofyour eyes.
So I think he is maybe chilledout a little bit.
(31:15):
The big key is going to bewho's he going to put around him
, and I hope he doesn't go backto 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 ofthese topics and then maybe even
tie in some things how itreally will affect our industry,
(31:38):
specifically building supplyand building and general
contracting in general.
You game for that I am.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think it's as relevant as any topic can be
right now and I say let's do it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
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 (31:59):
Oh no, that's okay, we're in agreement we're in
agreement.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
If you want to find out more information, go to the
website thecarolinacontractorcom.
We've got our social medialinks there to uh previous shows
that I've been referencing.
You can get them there, andnext week we'll do part two of
uh what's going to be in a Trumppresidency and how it can
benefit construction, buildingand the industries that are
related to it in general.
So we hope to see you next weekon the Carolina contractor show
(32:24):
.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina contractor show.
Visit the Carolina contractor.
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