Donald Trump’s recent presidency win has resulted in a nation divided. As street protests continue to rampage cities such as Boston and Los Angeles, others are celebrating with Trump in jubilation.

What many have realised and have expressed in tweets, videos and Instagram and Facebook posts, is that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States of America. The biggest question that many have now shifted their focus to is: What will he do with the position that he now holds?

Trump has been described as “an extremely effective political agitator, if not a smooth political operator” in many reports. After spending decades becoming one of the world’s most successful and famous businessmen, Trump is best known as a wealthy real-estate developer who founded an empire.

American infrastructure needs a facelift

Infrastructure was one of Trump’s key focus points during his run for the presidency.

“It’s no secret the US needs to invest in its crumbling bridges and highways,” American media reports indicated.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America currently has a backlog of infrastructure projects that is expected to cost the country $3.6 trillion by 2020.

For a country with a population size of 324 118 787, the need to develop and maintain its infrastructure is “stark, and the benefits to the economy so obvious, that it was one of the few areas where Trump and Clinton agreed this campaign season,” Quartz magazine reported.

While Trump indicated that he would at least double the $275 billion that Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton proposed, he initially did not give the public a precise figure.

Infrastructure and funding objectives

Trump said his focus would be to develop transportation, water, telecommunications, and electricity systems, using “American steel made by American workers.”

He also suggested that he would attract private investment by using tax credits as an incentive and would streamline permitting for pipelines and other energy projects.

Despite no clear pay structure for this, Trump alluded to issuing bonds and supporting an infrastructure bank.

“We’ll get a fund, make a phenomenal deal with low interest rates, and rebuild our infrastructure,” he said.

However, shortly before election day, Trump proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure construction plan. “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals,” he said. “We are going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. We will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”

He later indicated that his plan would actually only require $167 billion in government outlays through tax credits to private construction companies.

“The program was a linchpin of Trump’s promise to pump up US economic growth to 4% a year and create 25 million new jobs,” Michael Hiltzik, a LA Times columnist said.

Media reports said that many economists doubt that Trump’s plan would put infrastructure construction where it was most needed, or that the program was even affordable.

One American economist said the prospect of Trump’s keenness to spend helped lift the US stock market on Wednesday, when he won the presidency.

Construction companies stocks surge after Trump’s win

Steel producer, US Steel benefitted extremely well and such a company would probably do well to benefit from a construction program aimed at roads, bridges and airports, Hiltzik said. Since the beginning of the year, US Steel’s stocks were reported to have almost tripled and on Wednesday, surged more than 17% in New York Stock Exchange trading.

The positive rebound effect on stocks was not only seen in America. Shares in CRH, Ireland’s biggest company that is also the largest producer of asphalt and the third-largest producer of construction aggregates in the US, soared on Thursday morning.

Reports suggested that investors believe CRH will largely benefit from Trump’s plan to pump money into America’s infrastructure as CRH generates approximately 60% of its profits in the US, and is heavily involved in the supply of materials used for highway and other construction projects.

In Trump’s acceptance speech, he reiterated his plans to invest trillions in the country’s infrastructure that would create millions of jobs. However, Robert Gardiner, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers, said in an interview that “the numbers are significant should they come to pass.”

“While talk is cheap and funding is a major question mark, we believe that post-election talk of an infrastructure stimulus will now gain more traction,” Gardiner said.

He added that although it “may be early days to be weighing the pros and cons for the stock, CRH seems like an obvious beneficiary.”