Trump's Wall a Reality? Watch These Stocks React

Democrats got one nasty surprise on November 8th, and now they’re getting another one… Trump isn’t just their president, but he’s making good on some of the most salient promises of his campaign. 

Yesterday, the new American president — less than a week into his term — signed two executive orders aimed at tightening U.S. borders.

One was designed to stop illegal immigration indirectly by stripping sanctuary cities of federal grant funding, as well as putting into place sweeping new criteria that could significantly broaden the number of immigrants potentially targetable for deportation. 

But it was the other that made liberal jaws drop from coast to coast: the new POTUS ordered the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The outrage among the leftists was so palpable that I could just about taste the tears and adrenaline in the air as far out as the mountains of central PA, where I live.

I saw it in news coverage from around the country, and I saw it in posts made by people I know personally.

Posts like “I can’t believe this is really happening” and “It’s only been a week!” were numerous and universal, as the fear and anticipation turned into true dismay that, yes, the president really was going to do what he’d been promising. 

I wasn’t too shocked at the reaction, nor was I shocked at the rationale behind the outrage… or lack of rationale, I should say. 

Screaming and Crying: The New Rhetoric

The one thing I didn’t see at all — not even a hint — was an actual reason why building this wall is so god-awful. 

Why, when you get down to it, is making what has proven to be a very porous border less porous a bad thing? 

It is a border, after all. This is still a nation with sovereignty and citizens and a government, right?

We have the most expensive military in the history of the world by an order of magnitude, complete with a dozen $10 billion aircraft carriers, each steaming around with a full-operational Air Force on its deck, just waiting to obliterate anybody silly enough to threaten our soil or our assets.

We have thousands of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of wiping out cities the size of New York constantly at the ready and minutes from blasting off, if only a big enough moron rears his head and gives us a reason. 

We have stealth bombers, killer flying drones, and, yes, probably satellites that will zap you into a cloud of water vapor and carbon if you raise enough concern over at the Pentagon.

With all that already going on, how exactly is a wall that actually makes our border a physical boundary between us and a neighboring nation inconsistent with American foreign policy?

Why bother putting the threat of force behind any of our national interests if we’re going to leave our borders open to anybody who figures they don’t want to live south of it anymore?

Take a Deep Breath and Think

None of the numbers involved in this controversy are small. More than 700,000 illegally enter the U.S. annually. Of those who are stopped, 43% try again. 

So I ask again… Given this flow of illegal, undocumented entries, what exactly is wrong with securing the border?

The usual liberal explanation comes in one of two forms…

It’s either, “If you don’t understand, then you’re part of the problem” — a line I assume came off some bumper sticker that hacky sack-playing potheads regurgitate to instantly brush away any semblance of a debate — or the old favorite and ubiquitous go-to: “It’s racist.”

Both responses are designed as a shortcut to silencing any opposing argument, and both are often effective in doing just that… Neither, however, makes any sense at all. 

Wouldn’t it be more “racist” to allow a certain group of people easy entry into a country while everyone else in the world has to go through the complicated, long, and uncertain process of getting a legitimate visa?

I’ve had family members who spent months, even years getting permission to enter this country for just a brief visit. Why should Mexico and all of South America get instant and open access with little to no chance of denial or deportation?

We’re not in a special relationship with Latin America that I’m not aware of, are we?

We, as a nation, aren’t married to them. We’re not dating. We’re not even maintaining a friends-with-benefits arrangement while, as the millennials would say, “talking to other people.”

Mexico is a significant trade partner, but that’s it. 

Sharing the same living space, with freedom to come and go, isn’t part of the deal. 

Go Ahead… Sneak Into Mexico. You Won’t Get Free Health Care While Awaiting a Path to Citizenship

Believe me, if you’re ever caught south of the border without a legal stamp on your passport, you’ll be reminded very rapidly of that lack of a special relationship. 

To me, allowing people the privilege of entry and a “path to citizenship,” despite the cut-and-dried illegality of their method of immigration, based solely on their geographic location, is far more prejudiced that making it equally hard for everyone. 

The argument never gets that far, of course. I would have been called a racist or dismissed as part of the problem the moment I posed the question of why it’s so bad to have physical borders… never mind that my own presence in this country was made possible only after years of awaiting permission from the State Department to enter legally. 

Now, just so you know that I’m not out of touch, I do understand the peculiar nature of the times we live in. 

These days, adult individuals are expected to accept that there are no fewer than 70 genders out there. 

We’re supposed to nod our heads in total sincerity when grown men and women go on television and insist that they’re really cats, or horses, or aliens from another planet. 

Coast-to-Coast Reality Distortion 

We live in a time when Marxism is back in vogue; when the realities of basic arithmetic (as is the case with Bernie supporters) can’t be allowed to stand in the way of free college, free health care, free birth control, and probably free vacations for anybody who asks (unless, of course, you’re rich enough to afford to pay). 

We occupy this bizarre, surreal moment in history that defies reason on countless fronts, and yet the premise that a wall is somehow inherently immoral feels absurd. 

Feelings aside, the wall at the border isn’t just justifiable — it’s completely consistent with the very definition of sovereignty.

It’s not even unprecedented, as 11 years ago, the federal government authorized a 2,000-mile physical barrier — in the form of a fence — to be built along the border. 

700 miles of it was actually erected. 

So I’m done talking about right and wrong, because as far as I see it, this horse has been dead a long time. 

So let’s talk about what happens now. 

This wall, which will cost between $10 billion and $12 billion when completed, will be one of the biggest public works projects ever undertaken in the U.S.

Channeling Roosevelt Only Works If You’re a Democrat

It will be around 60 feet tall and close to 2,000 miles long and require more than three times the concrete that went into building the Hoover Dam. 

It will take years and thousands of full-time workers to complete and will require additional thousands of border patrol officers and maintenance personnel to operate and maintain. 

Mexico will NOT be paying for any of it, as President Enrique Peña Nieto has stated numerous times. 

Which means it will fall on American taxpayers and American contractors to do the job. 

With this in mind, two companies immediately emerge as candidates to play a major role in this project. 

The first is Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE: CAT), a company famous for its heavy machinery and the de-facto symbol of bullishness in the new construction sector.

This is a stock that reigns when construction booms take hold, and collapses when recessions pull the rug out from under new development. 

Regardless of who does the actual work, it’s a safe bet that the machinery that will be used will carry the famous Cat logo. 

The second is Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC), an Alabama-based firm specializing in the manufacture of building materials — concrete being a major component. 

With more than 7,000 employees and 300 facilities, Vulcan can be expected to play a major role in this project as a raw material supplier. 

Both of these companies got hit hard post-2008 but have recovered accordingly and continue to reign as symbols of American heavy industry. 

Trading volume for both stocks exceeded average as Trump signed his executive orders yesterday, and as we move closer to actual execution, that trend should only strengthen. 

Will there be protests? Certainly. 

Will they make sense? Not even close. 

Will it matter? Hopefully not. In the meantime, if you have a lucid argument against maintaining our national sovereignty, I invite you to email it to me because while I may not believe in unicorns, I won’t say no to seeing one in person. 

Fortune favors the bold,

Alex Koyfman

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