Dreams and nightmares alike came true on November 9 when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Despite Trump's endeavors to be "unpredictable," people all around the world can't help but speculate as to what the next four years hold in store for the United States and abroad. Here are my predictions for a Donald Trump presidency. If you think they seem a little out-of-the-ballpark, I ask you- what more must Donald Trump do to prove that anything can happen?
1. Race Relations will go down the toilet
Actually, that's a dumb thing to say. They're already down the toilet. Under Obama's presidency, America has turned into a battlefield where in every possible issue, race seems to be the concept everyone runs to the quickest when diagnosing a cause. Due to the flawlessly-dangerous conduction by the mainstream media, racial sensitivity has skyrocketed to the point where the argument devolves into a question of whether we are promoting social justice or just demonizing white people to make ourselves feel like the good guy. So, it's obvious why Donald Trump seems like the end of the world to the left. He will probably never touch any races negatively as president, but his off-the-cuff, "Don't think about it, just say it" style of communicating with the American people will probably allow for the finger-pointing wasteland we are today to become much worse, in terms of racial friction, so long as the media keeps doing its thing.
2. More states will legalize recreational marijuana
November 8 signaled not only the return of the Republican Party to the Oval Office; it signaled the conception of the greatest Republican congressional majority since 1928. So, electoral trends have it established that, in the coming state and federal elections in 2018 and maybe even 2020, the American people are more likely to vote blue. So, a resurgence of Democrats into government can be expected in the coming years, which can help marijuana legalization in itself. However, blue voters can greatly influence the path of marijuana legalization if the passage of such legislation is voted for on Election Day. It may sound silly that a Republican majority may mean pot will be legal soon, but in the long run, it makes sense.
3. Trade with China won't see much change
"China!" is probably something Donald Trump quietly mutters to himself whenever he stubs his toe. It's the country whose name was shouted so often, in such an impressionably-loud and goofy manner, by America's president-elect during his campaign that it provided comic material for thousands of memes throughout the Internet during the election. His campaign was a year-and-a-half promise to end the unfair trade deals between China and the United States that generate annual deficits exceeding $300 billion for the U.S. But, I don't think he can pull it off. For the past few years, China has acted toward the United States as a large, muscular bully, constantly messing with us and projecting an attitude of "Go ahead, fight me. See what happens." This is even more evident in China's recent illegal theft of a U.S. naval drone in the South China Sea last week. They're sending a message to Trump that they won't go down without a fight. Could this mean they are willing to instigate a trade war? Who knows. But Trump's constant scaling-back of his campaign promises in recent weeks, such as his allowing of some parts of his planned U.S.-Mexico border wall to be fence, or his plan to allow some parts of ObamaCare to stay, leads me to believe that more of his bolder and controversial campaign ideas will be deflated by the time they become reality. When the time finally comes for Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping to get in the arena, Jinping is going to wave the red flag for Trump to charge at him like a bull, but it is likely that Trump will go much softer than he has promised. He once said during a debate, "I'm totally open to a trade war!" But, I just don't think he is.
4. Russia will become more powerful
It's not hard to understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin was enthusiastic about the idea of Donald Trump becoming the new leader of the United States. During his campaign, Trump made it clear that he wants to renegotiate the U.S.'s ties with NATO, which, many speculate, will cause some European countries to question their relationship with U.S. In this case, Putin will have more potential European allies ripe for the picking, and if he succeeds in forming alliances with said countries, more life will be breathed into his arguably-imperialistic endeavor to make Russia "great again." If that's not enough, Trump has also publicly suggested removing American sanctions brought on Russia after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. So, could Trump be the secret ingredient to a revival of Russian power?
5. Trump will be impeached
You're really gonna sit there and tell me that Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon can get impeached, but Donald Trump won't? C'mon. Love him or not, the only person more transparent, more politically-imperfect, and ridden with more scandal than Hillary Clinton is Donald Trump. The establishment is probably sitting back and cracking its knuckles, waiting silently for Trump to make the slightest mistake that would be qualifiable for impeachment. Of course, it would be unwise to say that all of the skeletons in his closet have been revealed to the public. One can only imagine the sketchy, embarrassing news stories about him that are yet to pop up on television screens all over the world. Or, even worse, what will he do in office that will cause him to get impeached? we see another Watergate scandal? The possibilities are endless. I would personally be a little surprised if he made it through a four-year term without, at least, being impeached at some point.
