By this time tomorrow, the world will be in the Trump era.
As we write, the world, especially what we call the West, Europe, live the eve with trepidation, much as one would await the arrival of a hurricane or a severe storm.
Donald Trump is not a man of prepared speeches – he just goes along and says what comes into his head. And he is a great user of Tweets, which as those who use them know, are short pithy statements, that come from the top of one’s head.
To collect, analyse and classify all that he said (as we did in yesterday’s editorial) is to come face to face with all the huge changes that the Trump presidency wants to do. As contradictory as it is, this is what the American people voted for.
There is no doubt that the economic policy of the new president is the most important aspect of the new presidency in his own eye and in those of his supporters.
His economic policy has been defined as a sort of a sugar spike, a short burst of adrenalin followed by a longer period of low.
He intends to cut back on taxes, thus releasing gigantic economic forces and he also intends to cut down on expenditure and switch on protectionism.
Whatever the long-term consequences of this, the prediction for the immediate coming months is to kick-start growth in the American economy. The US will thus see a run of months of extra-high growth, such as it has not seen for years.
After that? After that it may find that its public debt has exploded once again. It may find that its protectionism has spawned protectionism from the other side. It may find that the nations that used to be its allies have now moved away and moved towards greater unity among them, especially in the case of Europe.
It may find that its only ally is a Britain that has chosen Brexit and that has cut itself away from its former European allies.
America is still a great nation and does not need the rest of the world, at least as much as the rest of the world needs it. If it decides to turn itself into a Fortress America, it is still sufficiently self-sufficient to cater for all its needs. There have been other times in its history when the US stood aloof from the rest of the world, when it tried very hard to keep apart from the issues that were troubling the world. It has to be said that this sort of non-interventionist America did not last much and to its credit the US then intervened and changed the course of history.
One must also say that it is no joke to carry the world on your shoulders, even if they are wide shoulders. The rest of the world, Europe in particular, were not always thankful for the protection America afforded them.
It will be a rollercoaster ride the world is in as from tomorrow. Hopefully, when the dust settles, we may find out that all the fears that have been expressed these weeks will not be as bad as reality.