Warren Buffett On A Trump White House: America Will Persevere

Legendary Warren Buffett has been openly vocal about his dislike of Donald Trump. And, while he supported Hillary Clinton and placed his bets on her, he also seemed to be prepared for a Trump win.

"I will predict that if either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton become president, Berkshire will do fine,” he said in the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) annual meeting. “We’ve operated under price controls, we’ve had 52 percent federal taxes applied to our earnings [...] we’ve had regulations come along,;” he added, urging investors to keep their cool.

"For 240 years it's been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start,” he had said in a letter to shareholders a few months earlier. During Berkshire’s annual meeting, the investor supplemented: no one president can wreck the U.S. economy.

Weird Backfire

Interestingly, shares of Berkshire Hathaway gained more than 2.25 percent on Wednesday after Donald Trump’s victory was announced. With this surge, the stock’s rise this week surpassed the 5.4 percent threshold. This means that, over the past three days, Buffett, who owns 18 percent of the company’s total outstanding stock, made more than $3 billion.

So far, a Trump victory has generated nice dividends for Buffett. In fact, since Trump’s win was announced, Buffett increased his wealth by more than $1 billion, only taking into account the returns from his Berkshire Hathaway stake. Other large positions making Buffett and his firm big bucks on Wednesday included:

• Wells Fargo & Co WFC shares spiked more than 6 percent, and Berkshire held 479,704,270 shares as of the last fully reported quarter.
• American Express Company AXP gained 2.65 percent on Wednesday; Berkshire owned 151,610,700 shares by June 30.
• U.S. Bancorp USB rose more than 4 percent; Berkshire last disclosed ownership of 85,063,167 shares.