Donald Trump won’t likely enjoy a honeymoon after he becomes president of the United States later this week, according to Mark Weinberger, chairman and CEO of EY, the global consulting and accounting firm.
In the video above, Weinberger tells Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer and anchor Alexis Christoforous that Trump will face high expectations for delivering on his campaign promises—along with plenty of impatience.
“I think the expectations are so high that frankly it’s going to be hard to meet them,” Weinberger said. “So it’s more going to be people saying, ‘Where is that health care reform and how am I going to feel it?’ back in the Rust Belt. ‘Where’s that tax reform, how am I going to feel it? Where are those regulations being pulled away and what’s it mean to me?’
“But we all know it takes longer to go through the legislative process than to just say you’re going to do something, so I think people are going to get impatient as this process moves forward, and I think we’re going to have to be honest and transparent about that,” Weinberger said.
Weinberger is among the American business leaders who will advise Trump as part of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, which Weinberger says has not met yet. Other members include General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Disney’s (DIS) Bob Iger.
The EY CEO says job creation will be the advisory group’s biggest priority. “I think clearly this election was about jobs and inclusive growth, meaning not just growth in GDP, but making sure that growth is shared among a lot of people, and that means going back to the Rust Belt and figuring out how your policies affecting them.”
Weinberger isn’t concerned about possible disagreements within the group. “I don’t expect that we’re going to agree on everything, and in fact, the people around that table won’t agree on everything, but it’s great to have that dialogue so I’m looking forward to it,” Weinberger said.
On the subject of mergers and acquisitions, Weinberger discussed EY research showing 57% of companies expect to actively pursue deals in the next 12 months.
“This year I think we’re going to be moving toward middle-sized market deals and moving down market to some degree, and you’re going to see it driven by the same things that we saw before,” Weinberg said, listing the desire for growth as the first of three key drivers.
“Companies want to come together because they’re not finding growth organically,” Weinberger said. “It’s going to be cost synergies like you’re seeing in oil and gas and some of these other sectors to try and reduce costs. And it’s going to be business convergence and just businesses coming towards each other in the cycle. And so I think those three reasons are going to be supporting a lot of deals.”
