GLENN: I'm in conflict today, and it is conflict that I think every American should be struggling with.
Here it is: Yesterday, announcement from Apple. It's almost hard to believe, but then again, it's hard to believe anything anymore. Yesterday, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple confirmed that the technology giant is pledging to spend $350 billion in new US-based investments over the next five years. Some of that money they are just repatriating from overseas money. And some from their US reserves and expected income. Three hundred fifty billion-dollar investment in the United States over the next five years. New manufacturing, R&D, new partnerships, new products, new stores, 350 billion.
Now, let me put that in context: Sitting at 12.87 degrees latitude, 121.7 degrees longitude sits a little island. We know it as the nation of the Philippines. It's a lovely nation. It's filled with 100 million lovely people.
And last year, their GDP was $330 billion. So what Apple has promised is to spend more than the entire economy of the Philippines.
That is astonishing. It's also more than Israel, at $340 billion. It's more than Hong Kong. More than Malaysia. More than Denmark. More than south South Africa. More than Columbia. In fact, there were only 30 nations on earth who will generate more in total GDP next year than Apple is going to invest in the United States of America.
Wow! Let's put that into context. And Apple isn't alone. They're merely joining a growing chorus of companies who are planning massive new investments in the United States, building new manufacturing plants, new capital investments, new hires, call centers, technology teams, service departments.
What does that mean for us?
It means jobs. It means new technology. It means a booming economy. It means growing communities.
Since November of 2016, 80 major US corporations have announced plans to repatriot overseas monies back to the United States. Something that this program has been calling for and saying could happen and warns against because there's so much money overseas, that it could actually cause us inflation if it comes pouring back fast. But the Obama administration would have nothing to do with it. It would pay dividends to investors, it would build factories, buy new equipment, and hire people.
Across those 80 companies, we are now well over $1.3 trillion in new planned investment here in the United States of America.
And that doesn't count the tens of thousands of small business owners.
So if you listen to my show last Friday, I was really upset. The whole crap hole fiasco at the White House. And I raged against our president. I expressed great frustration about him.
So here's my conflict: Trump ran on a platform where he claimed to be a deal-maker. Not in the way that I expected it to happen, but yeah.
When it comes to the economy, it looks like he is coming through. When he said I was going to be good for Wall Street and Main Street, so far, he has proven true. He said he would pass a tax plan. Trillions of dollars would come from the US from offshore tax havens. Yep.
He said that companies would hire more, build more, pay employees bonuses. The minimum wage, you wouldn't have to worry about regulating, because companies would start to raise that themselves. Yep.
From Bezos to Musk to Cook to Diamond, we're now learning all of that is true, it's all happening.
So here's what we're left with: We have a good Trump. We have a good Trump, and we have a not so good Trump. We have a bad Trump.
The good Trump talks about getting things done. And he gets things done. He paints a vision, of this is what is going to happen. And we all know through common sense -- a lot of us know through common sense, that's how the economy works. And he somehow or another, without the help of his own party, it's still happening.
Good, good. And then we have the bad Trump, the one that gets really frustrated in discussions. He makes verbal attacks. He is insensitive. It's unproductive. And it's -- it's embarrassing.
So what do we do? Well, the man is who he is. He's both of those things. He's the president of the United States. And he does some things that I really admire. And he does some things that I'm really embarrassed by. I guess what we have to do is stop believing the lie that we have to buy into everything anyone on our side does.
It's okay to say, you know what, I really disagree with him here. But look at this.
This is the way we're supposed to treat our leaders. It's also the way we're supposed to treat one another.
And the evidence is really clear, at least when it comes to the economy. Miracles have happened in the last 12 months.