Donald Trump has been president of the United States for less than a month. If the rest of his term is as chaotic as the past few weeks, the US, and the world, could be in for a wild ride.
But Charlie Munger, the 93-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, thinks everyone should chill out. Speaking yesterday at the annual shareholder meeting of Daily Journal, a publishing company he chairs, he said this of the new president’s policies:
He’s not wrong on everything. And just because he isn’t like us, roll with it. If there’s a little danger, what the hell, you’re not going to live forever anyway.
The billionaire investor, who has been dispensing folksy financial advice as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man at Berkshire for decades, said at last year’s meeting that Trump was “not morally qualified” to be president. What’s changed? “I’ve gotten more mellow,” Munger said at this year’s meeting in Los Angeles.
“I always try and think about the good along with what’s not good,” Munger said. He added that the new administration’s plans to revamp the tax system are “very constructive” and praised Trump’s pledge to leave social security alone despite the wishes of “highfalutin Republicans.”
Both Munger and Buffett’s views on Trump have shifted since his election. Last year, Buffett, a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton, got in a spat with Trump over the details in one another’s tax returns. After Trump’s election, he bought $12 billion of stock for Berkshire Hathaway and said that Trump “deserves everybody’s respect,” even if they disagree with what he’s doing.