Donald Trump has been the President of the U.S. for only less than two years, but the consequences of his presidency for our country and the world could be profound and scary.\u00a0 From the perspective of the environment, harmony with others, economy, American competitiveness, tax cuts and budget deficit\/national debt, world stability\/democracy\/rule of law, his impacts have been grave and significant.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is in two parts.\u00a0 Both parts are posted in this same December 2018 release.\u00a0 Part I<\/a> is posted in the “Political\/Social Commentary” page.\u00a0 Part II<\/a> is\u00a0 posted in the “Other” page.<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>I.\u00a0 Environment:<\/strong> One of the most urgent problems that will adversely affect the livelihood of our children and grandchildren is global warming.\u00a0 In spite of what the Trump administration claims that it is not a problem and the problem is not due to human activities, the worldwide scientific community for more than 30 years has agreed that global warming is a real problem [1] and it is man-made. [2]\u00a0 That was why the UN\u2019s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2015 adopted by consensus (by close to 200 countries) the Paris Climate Agreement to keep the global average temperature to well below 2\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels (the current temperature is about 1\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels) in order to avoid problems such as rising sea level, less ice and snow, droughts, heat waves, and extreme weather incidents.\u00a0 The temperature in 2017 was approximately 1\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels), and increasing at 0.2\u00b0C per decade, giving us to approximately 2067 to reach the 2\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

However, a major report \u201cGlobal Warming of 1.5\u00b0C\u201d was just released on October 8, 2018 by the UN\u2019s \u201cIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u201d (IPCC) based on inputs from 6,000 scientific references and the contributions of thousands of expert and government reviewers worldwide. [3]\u00a0 This massive study concludes that significant global adverse impacts will already be occurring by 2040 when the temperature reaches 1.5\u00b0C.\u00a0 These impacts include a world of worsening food shortages, wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs (important because coral reefs protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms. and provide habitats and shelter for many marine organisms), resulting in damages at a cost of $54 billion.\u00a0 The adverse impacts of global warming apparently are occurring faster than what people thought as recently as just a few years ago, as exemplified by the following quote from Bill Hare, an author of previous IPCC reports and a physicist with Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization: \u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe report is quite a shock and quite concerning \u2026 We were not aware of this just a few years ago.\u201d [4]<\/p>\n

The report pointed out that although the required rapid technical changes to avoid such disasters could be doable, but unfortunately it may be politically unlikely.\u00a0 President Trump in June 2017 already announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement at its earliest allowed date of November 2020.\u00a0 Just like in other areas, Trump is just ignoring the truth and following the wishes of his oil and coal industry supporters.\u00a0 This is just another example of Trump\u2019s priority, which is to himself, his family, his financial empire, and his financial supporters. What is important to the people of the U.S., the people of the world, or the health of the whole planet is really not important to him.<\/p>\n

II. Harmony With Others:\u00a0 <\/strong>Not only that Trump is ignoring the truths, he is criticizing any criticism of him no matter how much evidence that exists to support the criticism, and labeling that evidence as fake news.\u00a0 He then creates his own fake news and expects his staff and congressional leaders to push his fake news.\u00a0 Although Hilary Clinton should not have used her non-secured private email server during her presidential campaign, her deeds were far less unlawful (and damaging) than the numerous illegal acts that Trump committed during his presidential campaign with respect to collusion with Russia, payments to hush publicity about extramarital affairs, dealings leading to potential personal financial gains, numerous lies, etc.\u00a0 Yet, he continues and constantly yells out slogans like \u201clock her up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has lied literally thousands of times, even when there is obvious evidence that he is lying.\u00a0 [5]\u00a0 Trump\u2019s handling of the whole special prosecutor investigation provides plenty of additional information on his trying to cover up the truths. Another thing to consider is the large number of people in Trump\u2019s staff who have either resigned from their positions or have been released of their positions, often due to conflict of opinions on how to do their job lawfully and to the best of their ability, instead of just blindly following Trump\u2019s directives.\u00a0 A generation or two ago, just a subset of deeds similar to Trump\u2019s if performed by a presidential candidate or by the President of the U.S. would have caused him\/her to drop out of the presidential race or landed him\/her in impeachment proceedings.\u00a0 One of Trump\u2019s legacies is how far we have lowered the moral and legal standard in assessing our presidential candidates or our President.<\/p>\n

Domestically, Trump has polarized the American people and the American congress into two opposing camps so that the two sides seldom discuss and try to reach any compromises.\u00a0 Trump\u2019s positions, public comments, and actions toward sexual harassment and racial inequalities have also negated progress that have been made in the last generation and more.<\/p>\n

Internationally, Trump has alienated our allies, including allies such as Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany.\u00a0 Whatever trusts that have been built in more than half a century have greatly evaporated.\u00a0 Because of his flip-flop on many issues, international allies can no longer trust Trump on any important issue, and other international leaders can not trust Trump in negotiations.\u00a0 This creates divisions with our allies and makes it difficult in negotiations with other world leaders.\u00a0 The end result is heightened tension both domestically and internationally, and increased conflicts and probability of wars, in times that the world can no longer afford more conflicts and wars.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ambiguous position on the recent Jamal Khashoggi murder has raised serious question on his moral integrity and honesty, when he is ignoring the findings of his own intelligence organizations that there is solid evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in ordering the murder and dismembering of Khashoggi.\u00a0 Instead, he looks at the large weapon sales contract by Saudi Arabia and his own financial gains from Mohammed bin Salman.\u00a0 It proves once again that money is the dominant factor in Trump\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n

How hard does Trump work?\u00a0 He has spent more vacation days than any previous president.\u00a0 For example, when Trump was at 437 days in office, he had spent 140 days at Trump properties, and 105 days at golf properties, and during his first seven months in office to the end of August 2017, he had spent 53 days on vacation and played 33 rounds of golf, as compared to 15 days of vacation and 17 rounds of golf for Obama. [6]\u00a0 When he is on vacation, he often spends it at his own properties, such as in Florida, Washington, D.C., or New Jersey, incurring for his accompanying staff and secret service agents large expenses paid for by tax payers and resulting in income for Trump.\u00a0 Although it is difficult to calculate the cost of these vacations away from the White House, it is most likely of the order of tens of millions. [7]\u00a0 When a lot of Americans are trying hard to meet their needs, the president is spending extravagantly with the people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

III. Economy:\u00a0 <\/strong>Trump has often pointed to the economic boom in the last two years to support his own boasting and political agenda.\u00a0 Let\u2019s analyze more carefully various economic indicators, and discuss whether the economic improvements during the Trump presidency is a continuation of the progress made during the Obama presidency, since during Obama\u2019s eight years of presidency, the economic situation improved significantly from the serious recession of 2008.\u00a0 We also need to address the question of short-term gains versus potential long-term losses.<\/p>\n

For the economic indicators and the comparison of the Obama period versus the Trump period, we use the statistics and analysis in a recent article in The<\/em> Washington Post<\/em> [8].<\/p>\n