The corrupt, crazy and incompetent new President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump is the insecure, short-attention-span egomaniac he has always been.

Many of his voters certainly thought they were choosing a smart businessman who would settle down to running the country smoothly and get things done without delay. But I'm sure it's not going to happen. Donald Trump is ignorant and incurious about certain policies he is supposed to manage. His weaknesses are numerous and his chosen few in the new administration are going to amplify them.

If we want some notion of what Trump governance is going to look like, let us consider the botched occupation of Iraq for example. People who knew a thing or two about nation-building were removed and party loyalists – (Malta Labour Party's people of trust – profiteers) took their place. The conditions that prevailed in Iraq – blind ideology, contempt for expertise, effective absence of any enforcement of ethics rules – have now come back to America in a far more acute form.

Crises of some kind are bound to occur on any president's watch. What will happen when Trump's administration is faced with one? Even if Trump somehow skirts certain dangers, some crisis or other is bound to happen. Maybe there will be a new economic crisis, helped along by the rush to undo financial regulation. Maybe there will be a foreign affairs crisis, say over adventurism in the Baltics by Trump's good friend Vladimir P. Maybe it will be something we're not thinking about… perhaps a trade war with China or Germany. Then what Mr Trump?

 

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara