Three Ways The Donald Trump Presidency Will Forever Change America [Opinion]

This past week, America welcomed the populist President Donald Trump to the White House, and already the new commander-in-chief made strides in advancing his agenda to make America great again. But with the election of an unprecedented type of leader, what will change in our great country?

President Trump made many odd, interesting, controversial, and somewhat crazy promises during both his presidential and presidential nomination campaigns. Whether it be the declaration of creating wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for, the Chinese hoax of climate change, or the withdrawal of America from various trade treaties, the future of America is uncertain.

Here are three things we can expect to change in America in the next four years.

Donald Trump Will Focus On “America First” In Trade

While this may come as no surprise, the intensity with which President Trump has focused on internalizing and deglobalizing the American economy has not occurred in the last 30 years. Reagan, the Bushes, Clinton, and Obama never turned away from international trade in the manner that Trump plans. In fact, Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, though never ratified by Congress, is dead in the water. And this is merely the first step in putting America first in trade deals.

NAFTA is next. The billionaire has already spoken with the leaders of both Canada and Mexico, essentially notifying the nations that the current agreement is under the microscope. At this point, Canada is looking to avoid any changes to the trade deal which would negatively impact its economy, despite Trump’s primary interest in targeting America’s job losses to Mexico. According to The Balance, “Canada is the number one importer of U.S. goods.” If the renegotiation of NAFTA negatively impacts Canada as well as Mexico, the U.S. may end up losing money due to loss of Canadian trade.

Donald Trump’s Proposed Tax Plans May Significantly Impact The National Debt

While campaign promises were made by the businessman-turned-president, whether or not the tax breaks and loophole closures promised will improve the economy for both the middle and lower income tiers and/or the government are hotly debated.

Both the Washington Post and The Guardian have pointed out that Trump’s claim that international military spending is a major contributor to the national deficit appears to be in error. According to the Post, “The empirical evidence from our research suggests that raising taxes, improving tax collection or removing tax concessions (e.g., closing tax breaks for wealthy or for well-connected U.S. corporations) are the options to explore if the goal is to reduce U.S. debt.”

Marc Goldwein, the policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told The Guardian, “This is not a problem of runaway defense spending or runaway welfare programs. It’s a problem of the rising cost of major entitlements that mainly go to the elderly and rising interest rates which are returning to more normal levels.”

Some analysts also believe that Trump’s proposed federal spending could raise the deficit anywhere from 6 to 10 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Considering the uproar over the government’s credit score downgrade not long ago, increasing the deficit and national debt by such a significant amount may harm the economy in the long run.

Donald Trump’s Attempts To Downsize The Federal Government May Work

One of the first things Donald Trump did when he became president was to issue a hiring freeze for all federal employees except those relating to public safety and national security. An issue previous administrations (Reagan and Carter) which attempted to reduce federal spending via decreasing the government’s expenditures on employees had was the use of outside contractors. The language of this executive order includes the stipulation “Contracting outside the Government to circumvent the intent of this memorandum shall not be permitted,” according to NPR.

Additionally, some hints have been dropped indicating a belief by the current administration that federal employees may be paid higher than their counterparts in the private sector. While no official memorandum has been issued indicating expected legislation or further executive orders cutting federal employee pay, it is an issue likely to be raised in the near future.

On the other hand, the overall size of the government has been decreasing since its high point in the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations. From a height of approximately 3 million employees, the federal government has decreased to around 2 and a half million individuals.

So what are your expectations from the Donald Trump presidency? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!

[Featured Image by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images]