I have been recently asked as to why do I, as an Australian, have such a hatred of Donald Trump. Well, for starters, that is not accurate. I do not hate anyone. Hate is not an emotion that I have either the time or the energy to waste on.

The real response is, I detest what Trump stands for. I despise the underhanded, lying, abusive approaches he takes to anything and anyone who does not worship at the shrine of his feet. I loathe the manner in which he has hijacked the US, the racist rantings, the word salads, the obviousness of his dishonesty, lack of loyalty, and the essential humorlessness of the man. What passes as wit for him is crass abuse for anyone else, his obvious phoniness is as unpleasant to watch as his voice is to listen to,

But, I don’t know the man personally. I do not want to know the man personally. If I was ever in danger of meeting him, I would run, as fast as I could, otherwise I might just draw up some energy and remember to punch a Nazi in the face.

What I am interested in is the future.

We have an unknown future. We have a lot of soothsayers who like to tell us about the future, but all of the are wrong. Really, they are not foretelling they are guessing. Sometimes their guesses are close, sometimes they are wrong. These are “experts”, scientists or economists, usually. Journalists are also soothsayers but their accuracy rate is considerable lower than that of scientists, and no better than economists.

However, every now and again, we see an avalanche ahead. We know we can avoid it, but we rarely do. Why?

Right now, that avalanche happens to be a person, Donald J. Trump. He is a massive boulder in the way of our future. How has that happened? Why has it happened? The answers are not easy, but first, why do I think he is a boulder in the way of our future. I mean, as an Australian, how does Trump have an impact on us? On me?

Trump’s major directions begin with isolationist policies. Tariff barriers against “unfair trade”. A physical wall, that Mexico was going to pay for, to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. Trump’s obvious intent to pull the US out of NATO, ultimately, I expect, the UN as well, but that is a lot further away. There are bound to be other measures but essentially, these will form the core of the isolating of the US from the rest of the world.

Can we afford these policies? We can’t, not here in Australia. Trump’s proposed tariffs will recommence the trade war with China and Australia, New Zealand and other much smaller economies will be caught in the crossfire.

I suggest that China’s policies in the Pacific are now directed at separating key Pacific Islands from Australia, New Zealand, France, the US. The first of these was the Solomon Islands. Former PM Sogovare was quite open to Chinese investments, which carried with it security concerns. His successors have not moved too far from PM Sogovare’s positions, but are a lot friendlier toward Western nations at least.

These things highlight some of the major problems we have had over the last few years. Initially, Australia benefited from Trump’s looming trade war with China, but all too soon,especially when former Australian PM Morrison went along with Trump and his “China epidemic” bullshit, it was all too soon that we were caught in the same trade war.

The return of a Trump administration in the US is, or should be for Australia, a rather terrifying prospect. Trump wants to reignite the trade war, which could, with but a single misstep, turn into an actual shooting war.

The issues this creates for us are only too real. Essentially, we have little or no choice and we are just not in the position of being able to face a real war. Forty years of neglect of our military has come back to haunt us. Our leaders bought into the nonsense of the Neoconservative Economists and allowed out military establishment to decay. Trade was supposed to ease international tensions, not aggravate them.

Perhaps if Keynes had been able to get what he wanted at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, it could have been different. The US refused to support all of Keynes’ proposals, especially the one that redressed potential imbalances in trade, which is now causing the major problems in trade today. this is why Trump wants a tariff barrier and that is going to hurt the rest of the world.

This is why we can’t afford a Trump Presidency.

EDIT: April 30, 2025: And all these things above are occurring, compounded by the Trump Administration’s obvious lack of perception and their desire to run the US into the ground.