Like many Americans, I followed the 2016 presidential campaign very closely and, like a majority of Americans, I found Donald Trump to be quite lacking as a candidate. The policies and rhetoric that he was putting forward seemed to me to be, simply put, nonsensical lies. Nothing made that more clear than his laughable performances in the debates against Hillary Clinton. His rare moments of clarity of vision in those debates were reserved for when he was being racist. And that is why I was so shocked and appalled to see that he managed to eke out enough votes to win an electoral college victory. I looked at my fellow Americans and wondered what went so wrong with them that they ever saw anything good in this man.
Where things got interesting was in March of 2017. Even as I was personally mourning what I saw as a grave turn towards fascism, the Trump administration contracted my business to provide supplies for a Halloween display attached to one of the migrant camps(which I absolutely denounce). It’s hard to believe that just three years ago we were a struggling small business operating a single small Halloween supply warehouse in Northern Arizona. And that is because this Trump administration business turned out very good for us.
I’m told the administration was very satisfied with our services that first go-round and, over the past few years, they have contracted our services for many more events around the country that were in need of Halloween/general spooky decoration. And we naturally expanded to meet this demand. We now have four Halloween supply warehouses in Northern Arizona and have used some of the additional revenue to open three seasonal consumer-focused Halloween stores in Phoenix. And while this has definitely been good for me and my biracial family, I’ve also used this additional business to create jobs. We’ve expanded from three employees to fifteen employees, most of whom are full-time employees paid at above market wages. The way I look at it, I could get away with paying an office assistant for just ten hours a week at ten bucks an hour. But I like Jolene and she brings a vibrant energy to the office. And I want to take care of her. So she’s full-time and I believe we would both agree that she is well compensated for that time.
This all puts me in a rather complicated situation. Because the combination of the likely loss of business from the Trump administration and Biden’s proposed increases to my personal taxes would severely cripple my business. I’ve tried looking at it many different ways and I simply don’t see how we could possibly make up that difference. With all of our existing investments in warehouse space and supplies, I fear for the financial health of my family and my employees under a Biden presidency. And that is why I have made the difficult decision to vote for Donald Trump on election day. And I encourage all of my friends, family and employees to do the same.
Yes, I do not believe I was wrong in my initial assessment of Donald Trump. Yes, he is incompetent and racist and just a general threat to our democracy. Yes, people will continue to be hurt by a Trump administration. Some may even die. But as a businessman and as a provider, I just don’t see any other option. There simply isn’t enough consumer demand in Northern Arizona for this high volume of premium synthetic cobwebs.
- I Detest Trump But My Business Depends On His Presidency - October 31, 2020