Home Depot founder and former Jeb Bush supporter Bernie Marcus is now backing Donald Trump and he says it’s for a personal reason.
“I now stand in support of Donald J. Trump because the fate of this nation depends upon sending him, and not Hillary Clinton, to the White House,” Marcus said in a piece published in RealClear Politics on Wednesday.
While Marcus noted his concerns about Clinton appointing the next Supreme Court Justice, his real focus was on the challenges faced by small businesses in America today.
“I genuinely believe that if we to started The Home Depot today,” he wrote, “we would fail because of the hurdles government, especially the current administration, places in front of small business owners.”
Marcus lamented the fate of many new businesses under Clinton and Obama, “strangled by faceless bureaucrats and politicians who erroneously believe that government ‘can do it better.’”
Beginning as a small business in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1978, Home Depot is now a company that is worth billions and employs thousands of people across all 50 states. “Investors believed in us, and the government did not stop us.,” Marcus said, recalling the environment that helped the company succeed and is so different from that of today.
“I have never seen our government as hostile to free enterprise, especially small business, as it is today,” he wrote. “It is driving over-regulation, over-taxation, over-litigation, and over-spending. These ‘overs’ are killing small businesses, which create the majority of new jobs in America.”
Marcus, a Mitt Romney backer in 2012, called on Republicans to unite behind Trump, warning those who continue to oppose the presumptive GOP nominee.
“Make no mistake, Republicans who refuse to stand behind their party’s nominee are electing Clinton, whether they cast their ballots for her or not,” he wrote. “I have a message for the #NeverTrump crowd: Enough already. Donald Trump is our presumptive nominee and it is time to get over wishing it were not so. If you don’t, change your social media hashtag to #HillaryGOP.”
Urging Republicans to “stand up and be counted,” Marcus summed it up simply:
“As Americans, the choice is abundantly clear: If you want four more years of President Obama, vote for Hillary Clinton; if you want to take the country in a new direction, vote for Donald Trump.”
[VIA Biz Pac Review]
