CNBC Disruptor 50

Why Kevin O'Leary says Trump has '100 percent' chance of getting reelected in 2020

Key Points
  • Kevin O'Leary said he's going to continue investing heavily in small private businesses in America.
  • The reason, he said, is because the environment "just keeps getting better."
  • He believe's Trump's elimination of regulation-heavy policies will help get him reelected in 2020.
Kevin O'Leary: Trump has 'unshackled the small businesses in America'
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Kevin O'Leary: Trump has 'unshackled the small businesses in America'

Kevin O'Leary said he's going to continue investing heavily in small private businesses in America, because the environment "just keeps getting better."

At the CNBC Disruptor 50 Roadshow in Philadelphia on Wednesday, the financial expert and "Shark Tank" star blamed past administrations' regulation-heavy policies and applauded Trump's push to eliminate the red tape for companies nationwide, facilitating the lives of America's small-business owners.

"Like him or hate him — don't care. But the policy that's come out of there in the last two years has ripped all that stuff out," O'Leary said. "You don't see it; we never talk about that stuff. But it's small things like that that all of a sudden my restaurant business that I invested in — a company called Wine and Design — now we can open up in all these strip malls and sell franchises like crazy because the regulatory environment has changed."

"If you think this administration is getting voted out in the next election, you are 100 percent wrong. Where I go to Amarillo, Texas; Champaign; Urbana; Fargo, his name is painted on the barn, and I see it for miles around. And look, I'm not trying to advocate here for it. I'm just telling you, if you think sitting in Boston or Philly or New York or LA that's America, that's not America. I go to America, and they love what's happening," he said.

If you think sitting in Boston or Philly or New York or LA that's America, that's not America. I go to America, and they love what's happening.
Kevin O'Leary
Canadian entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" investor

"Over the last 10 years the America that I grew up in, and I started my company in, was lost. It was so overregulated and so governed and so punitive for business. And the policy — not the administration and not the past president — the policy that that administration generated in my view was un-American," he said.

He pointed to a restaurant he wanted to open in Aspen. "The frosted glass on the window had to be so many yards from the toilet, and the window had to open so many inches. It was complete chaos in the regulatory environment."

O'Leary said the Trump administration has finally "unshackled the small businesses in America."

He said small businesses will be even happier after feeling the benefits from Trump's tax-reform plan. "That's a benefit that's yet to come," he said.

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