And now, even with the stock market rattled by Trump’s tariff policies and recession fears rising, Johnson remains bullish.

“There might be a rocky road a little bit as the economy resets,” said Johnson. “It’s kind of like when a company files for a reorganization after bankruptcy. … It’s tough times going through that reorganization, but they come out of it a lot stronger.”

Trump’s sledgehammer approach to the economy may be unnerving to stock investors and economists, and in Massachusetts, his push to slash federal funding to universities and hospitals could jeopardize jobs, research, and health care access. But even amid the uncertainty, not everyone is bracing for bad times. Some local CEOs and business owners believe the president’s efforts to restructure the economy and rein in government spending will pay off in the long run.

“I would say pretty universally the sentiment is that businesses are going to be better under the Trump administration,” said Robert Hale, CEO of Granite Telecommunications in Quincy, a self-described fiscally moderate Democrat who was a big supporter of former governor Charlie Baker.

Hale doesn’t agree with all of what Trump is doing, and while the Biden administration did not hurt his business, it didn’t help either. “The Trump administration’s sentiment is pro business, which, as a business person, the wind at your back instead of in your face, is a lot different,” he said.

Other business owners have felt left behind by some of Biden’s signature initiatives, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which injected hundreds of billions of dollars into emerging industries like clean energy.

“Universities, institutions, environmental groups were getting large amounts of funding, and that’s really not how an economy grows,” said Bruce J. Mittman, CEO of Needham advertising agency Mittcom who also owns 34 radio stations across the country. “Government is there to support us and help us grow and keep the marketplaces safe and fair, and borrowing accessible to all, but it’s not there to determine winners and losers, and I think the last administration did that, to their detriment.”

During Trump’s first term, many business leaders and groups clearly distanced themselves on issues ranging from his travel ban of Muslim immigrants to his failure to condemn the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. But in his second term, even as Trump has ratcheted up deportation efforts and anti-diversity rhetoric, executives from Silicon Valley to Wall Street have fallen in line, attending his inauguration and rolling back corporate diversity programs.

Still, Trump remains a polarizing figure, especially in Massachusetts where even supportive business owners often stay quiet because they fear blowback, said Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. He thinks some business owners who backed the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 switched to Trump in 2024.

“The Biden that was on the campaign stage against Trump four years ago — his first time where he wanted to kind of unify the country — was not the Biden people saw in the White House,” observed Craney. “I know a lot of business owners who just felt they were just basically making it the last four years. It was tough. … They didn’t feel like people in power cared about what they were trying to do.”

But one thing that has been tough to swallow is Trump’s escalating tariff war against Canada, Mexico, China, and other countries. While business owners laud Trump’s goal to bring more manufacturing back to the US, it’s difficult to plan when his strategy keeps evolving.

“If there are tariffs, we will learn to live with them — again, short-term pain through that restructuring, while businesses adapt and people adapt,” said Rod Egger, who lives in Wellesley and serves as CEO of Bariatrix Nutrition, a high-protein food manufacturer with factories in Vermont, Canada, and France. “The worst thing would be to start down a path and then reverse course in six months or 12 months.”

For now, Egger is making minor adjustments but holding off on big moves. He’s bringing about 30 jobs back to the US, shifting from his Montreal factory to Vermont. That’s because much of Bariatrix’s source material is made in the US, and manufacturing in Canada has become more expensive amid the tariff fight.

“If his tariff strategy is well communicated, and well thought out, it could be very effective for reshoring manufacturing to the US,” added Egger.

Then there are business owners like Quincy construction firm owner Jay Cashman, who think it’s way too early to say if Trump’s policies will strengthen the economy.

Cashman, who voted for Trump, said so far he likes the idea of bringing in billionaire businessman Elon Musk to disrupt government and make it more efficient. “I think the world of Elon Musk,” said Cashman. “It’s a different perspective.”

But on other matters, Cashman said he’s taking a “wait and see” approach, though he’s not too worried.

“I’m pragmatic,” he added. “America is resilient. It can take almost anything. … I think this could be OK.”

Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com.

Directors overseeing programs that provide intensive mental health help to Massachusetts’ most vulnerable children and adolescents say Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to consolidate the services has caught them “off guard.”

The Healey administration is looking to save $15.3 million in the next fiscal year’s budget by slashing funding for a 30-bed dual intensive residential treatment program for adolescents in Westboro and a 12-bed program for children ages 6-12 in Belchertown.

Officials with the state Department of Mental Health say the programs are operating at half capacity and consolidating them would ensure “taxpayer dollars are used effectively,” but the providers argue that there’s much more to the story.

If the proposal gets legislative approval in Healey’s roughly $62 billion budget request, the Bay State would lose its only intensive residential treatment program for children between the ages of 6 and 12 who are suffering from suicidal and/or homicidal ideations or other complex needs.

Tina Champagne, CEO of Cutchins Programs for Children and Families, runs the program, called “Three Rivers,” based in Western Massachusetts that serves children from all over the state. She called the governor’s request “mind boggling.”

“These services are needed or are going to be needed more than ever,” Champagne told the Herald. “The mental health crisis for children and families started to really increase after COVID. The pandemic ripple effects are still in effect in addition to all the uncertainty in the world.”

NFI Massachusetts provides intensive services to adolescents ages 13-18 who suffer from “serious emotional disturbance, trauma histories or mental health diagnoses.”

The program is like Three Rivers in that it helps those who need more care than what’s provided in a hospital or a more community-based setting, like at a school or doctor’s office, Executive Director Lydia Todd told the Herald.

“We maintain that the reasons for the underutilization do not equate to no need,” Todd said, “but there are instead bureaucratic obstacles, lack of marketing and lack of knowledge that needs to happen to make sure we are fully utilized.”

The proposed funding cuts are even more baffling, Champagne and Todd said, after they highlighted how the state had “invested millions” to relocate their programs within the past few years.

NFI Massachusetts and Three Rivers are not state-owned. The DMH has said that it “incurs the same costs regardless of whether a program is fully or partially utilized” as the programs are “contracted through an accommodation rate model.”

The proposed funding cuts “also reflect our commitment to helping people transition to receiving mental health care services in their homes and communities, which is a more effective way to provide treatment,” the agency says.

“However,” it has added, “adolescent patients will still be able to receive treatment at other locations in the state and younger children will be able to receive acute care treatment at hospitals when necessary.”

An agency spokesperson told the Herald Saturday that the governor’s proposed DMH budget requests an increase of $1.2 billion, or 7% more than current spending. The spokesperson added that the agency has “expanded access to care through our 31 Community Behavioral Health Centers.

“The Department of Mental Health is committed to supporting mental health needs across our state,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

After facing sharp backlash in the weeks following her budget proposal announcement in January, Healey decided to halt plans to close a Cape Cod psychiatric hospital and a Canton children’s rehab hospital. Working groups of stakeholders have convened to look into the future of both facilities.

An online petition urging the state to restore the “major cuts” to DMH’s youth and family services said losing the intensive residential treatment programs would “put entire families at risk.”

“This loss would force children to ‘board’ at home while waiting for the proper level of care,” the petition states, “affect schools, increase court involvement, and result in more lives lost to suicide. It will drive Emergency Room boarding back up.”