It’s been a hell of a ride for President Trump so far…
He’s learning every day that being President — as he himself put it — is “more work” than he is used to.
That’s one reason he relies on a trusted group of advisors to help him navigate the Washington miasma. Some of whom, like Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, you’ve surely heard of. But many others keep a low profile.
Now, many reporters in the famous “fake news” arena like to say that Donald Trump doesn’t take advice from anyone. In the end he calls the shots himself…
We can see this play out in the ways he’ll contradict even his most trusted advisors after public statements.
While Congress struggled in trying to pass his “travel ban”, his Justice Department made changes and adjustments in order to make it constitutionally viable. This included softening the language of the bill and making it more likely to pass.
Instead of letting his advisors do their job, he decided to tweet that the bill was now “a watered-down politically correct version”, irritating the people involved in actually passing the bill.
Last month spokesman Sean Spicer went on television in a highly publicized press conference to say that FBI director James Comey was let go because of his treatment of Hillary Clinton during the election and that he “acted based on the clear recommendations” of the attorney general and deputy attorney general.
But in an interview with NBC, Trump told Lester Holt that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the recommendation because he was “a showboat.” I don’t care what your opinion of Trump is, the fact that he would call someone else a showboat is simply hilarious.
However, while he may shoot from the hip on Twitter and in interviews, Trump does indeed take advice from a select group of people. He speaks regularly with members of the business community and the media establishment.
I think the key to understanding his moves going forward is to look at who he respects and listens to most. You could call them his shadow cabinet.
Let’s take a quick look at the men behind the curtain…
Richard LeFrak
Richard LeFrak is the CEO of LeFrak — a massive New York real estate development company. He has been friends with Donald Trump for decades and is a trusted economic advisor to the President. LeFrak is an honored guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and Trump wrote glowingly about him in his book, “The Art of the Comeback”.
His net worth is estimated at $6.5 billion, according to Forbes.
LeFrak agreed to be part of the large infrastructure deal that Trump wants to roll out.
Steve Roth
Steve Roth is a real estate investor who founded Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO). He was one of Trump’s top economic advisors during his campaign. Roth owns two buildings with President Donald Trump. His net worth is around $1.01 billion, according to Forbes.
He is also being consulted on the President’s infrastructure package along with LeFrak. When Trump put his economic advisors in place he said he was bringing together “very smart people that know how to spend money properly.” These guys fit the bill.
Infrastructure is high on the President’s list of goals and these two could help mold the deal. It is a realistic goal that he could certainly get done this year.
The pure infrastructure play on this is the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (BATS: PAVE). It focuses on:
- Companies involved in the construction and engineering of infrastructure projects;
- The production of raw materials, composites, and products used in building infrastructure projects;
- Producers and distributors of heavy construction equipment; and
- Companies engaged in the transportation of materials used in infrastructure projects.
It should do very well if these advisors can help push it through.
There’s another couple of advisors who are part of a sector near and dear to President Trump. Casinos…
Phil Ruffin
You don’t get much closer to someone than being named the best man at his wedding. That’s exactly the role Donald Trump served for Phil Ruffin, the billionaire casino magnate. He owns the 
Treasure Island Casino and the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Obviously Donald Trump has a long and storied history with casinos. But Ruffin has more in common with Trump than casinos. In the wedding where he served as best man, Ruffin married his third wife: a 26-year-old model and former Miss Ukraine.
They are clearly quite the kindred spirits.
Ruffin was ranked 814 on the Forbes list of world billionaires with a net worth of $2.6 billion.
Sheldon Adelson
Trump is also in regular contact with another casino magnate: Sheldon Adelson. He owns the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (NYSE: LVS). He ranked as number 20 on the Forbes billionaires list with a whopping net worth of $35.9 billion.
He’s also the grand pooh-bah of Republican donors, He was the largest donor to Trump’s campaign, shelling out $25 million. Hell, he even kicked in another $5 million for the inauguration celebrations.
I’m guessing the Casino industry will certainly be treated well under President Trump.
If you were to play the casino connection, I’d go with VanEck Vectors Gaming ETF (NYSE: BJK). This fund approximates the S-Network Global Gaming Index.
Its major holdings are:
- Las Vegas Sands Corp — 7.88%
- Sands China Ltd — 7.64%
- Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd — 7.31%
- MGM Resorts International — 7.22%
- Aristocrat Leisure Ltd — 6.24%
Again, Sheldon Adelson owns the Las Vegas Sands.
For better or worse, gambling is great business in good times and bad. BJK is the best ETF that lets you play the global casino market in one fell swoop.
It has 36.7% exposure in the U.S., 15.3% in Australia, and 11.5% in China.
But there is one industry that most people don’t consider when they think about investing in the Trump era, and it could be the most lucrative of all…
Trump’s dump of the Paris Climate agreement was clearly a big deal — and it made a number of his business advisors rather angry. Thirty major American company leaders even teamed up to write a letter urging him to reconsider.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney CEO Robert Iger resigned from Trump’s advisory council in protest.
But while these companies were hemming and hawing, there is one sector that could seriously benefit from a move towards American energy independence: nuclear power.
You see, most people think that Trump was merely sticking up for Coal Country when he trashed the climate deal. 68% of West Virginia voted for him, one of the most overwhelmingly lopsided votes I’ve ever seen in an election.
And he very well may be sticking up for coal.
But in order to have any impact on global emissions, he’s going to have to make some moves. One will be to start utilizing more nuclear power. It’s cleaner than coal and natural gas, and accounts for over 20% of U.S. energy production.
A presidential memo described ways to keep nuclear reactors “operating as part of the nation’s infrastructure.”
Trump himself has expressed his support for nuclear power in the past. In an interview with Fox News he said “Nuclear is a way that we get what we have to get, which is energy. I’m in favor of nuclear energy, very strongly in favor of nuclear energy.”
Energy Secretary Rick Perry held a news conference where he said that “if you really care about this environment that we live in — and I think the vast majority of the people in the country and the world do — then you need to be a supporter of this amazingly clean, resilient, safe, reliable source of energy.”
And while many big-name CEOs are publicly trashing Trump, what they don’t tell you is that they are heavily invested in nuclear power.
- Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has invested $35 million into the nuclear resource
- Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, invested $19.5 million
- Billionaire founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, staked $2 million.
- Even Trump “hater” George Soros threw his hat in the ring, investing a whopping $126 million.
Our top analyst Nick Hodge has seen this coming for a while now. He even released a short documentary on what he calls Trump’s “Nuclear Codes.” These codes mark the precise location of the #1 nuclear resource needed by Trump to accomplish his agenda.
