Courting disaster: The terrifying reality of a world with President Trump

He’s harnessed his public persona, and kept rolling with the aggressive attitude and firing out the no-holds-barred insults he’s become known for, but Dr Smith says, there’s no way of knowing whether Trump would adjust his behaviour once he’d moved into the White House.

“We don’t know whether he would recognise that he doesn’t know a lot about the areas of the presidency and delegate those areas to experts. I think that’s what a lot of people would be hoping, that the work would largely be done by expert advisers,” he said.
“On the other hand, it’s Donald Trump. He has a massive estimation of his own abilities, and if he gets a massive endorsement there’s every possibility he will go ahead and do those things he’s been talking about, like engage in trade wars and tighten borders with Mexico.”

Dr Smith says the potential disaster of a Trump presidency could be felt globally.
“There’s a limited amount that the president can do directly to influence the economy, but things they do and say can have major effects on certain markets. Stock markets can react violently to certain announcements, and it’s quite possible that Trump could spook markets in a way that could have negative effects for the economy overall,” he said.


“If he’s going to get involved in the trade war with China, really, nobody is going to win that war, that is like courting global disaster. The two economic giants of the world being involved in a trade war would be disastrous. That’s not what the rest of the world and the majority of the US wants. He’s suggested he’s not going to get involved in as many actual military wars as his predecessors did, but given his generally aggressive demeanours, other countries might interpret a Trump presidency in hostile terms.”


So economic chaos and military action could very well be on the cards, but that’s not even the worst of it.
“The thought of him having access to the nuclear codes, given that at a rally recently he said that he wanted to punch a protester in the face, plus his total intolerance of the sect — it’s not a combination we really want to explore,” Dr Smith said.