We, the people, have come across the (mis)fortune of having our futures stuffed into the clumsy palms of ‘American Heartthrob’, Donald Trump. Post-election, many people all around the country are up in arms about the outcome. Some may choose to quietly gripe about a bad situation; others may choose to not-so-quietly complain and ostracize Trump’s many supporters. Whatever path we may choose to take, I think it’s safe to say that many of the country’s citizens -specifically of varying ethnic groups- are of the opinion that America is going to shit.

So here we are, settled under the shadow of President-Elect Trump and his seemingly sentient comb over, and I am forced to wonder: How screwed are we? Admittedly, I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Trump -something that is shared by many of my peers. In fact, my knowledge of Donald Trump extends to his considerable wealth and shenanigans, and nothing else. Considering the fact that this man is going to be the one running the country that we live in, I’d say that our ignorance isn’t exactly acceptable.

In this case, I want to cover a handful of the policies and goals -both good and bad- that Donald Trump has proclaimed his intent to fulfil, so that we  hopefully have an idea of what we can expect from our time under Trump in his first 100 days in office.

Mexico’s Great Wall of America

Considering that it’s one of his most daring promises, and also one of his first, I suppose it would be prudent to kick this off with his Wall: When it was first proposed in June 16, 2015, he said, “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”

The wall would approximately cost $8-$12 billion, The wall would be made of precast concrete with a height of a minimum of 35 feet. Donald also specified that the wall would not need to cover the entire 2,000 miles of the border; only half would be required, as a result of natural barriers.

Trump will agree not to pass this legislation, and thus, cut off a chunk of Mexico’s income by its knees if they make that one-time payment to build his wall. It’s doubtful that he actually cares if their economy is shot to hell. Rather, I expect that it’s just him trying to smooth over the ‘negotiations’. Besides, I imagine that Trump expects his wall to severely limit illegal immigration and thus, the amount of money that Mexico receives from it, anyways. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the wall would actually be fairly detrimental to our own economy, and when you consider the fact that we’re already in a massive debt with China that’s not exactly a loss we can afford to take.

Fisticuffs with China

Speaking of which, I feel obligated to address Trump’s plans of trade war. For those who aren’t aware, in May, 2016, Trump’s promised to ‘make America great again’. He also let slip that he intended to turn on China, via a 45% import tariff on Chinese goods. He said: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country. That’s what they’re doing. It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world.”

I admit that Trump does have some semblance of a point in the fact that we are too dependent on China and that in order for our less-than-favorable economic position to get any better, we have to get from under China’s boot. It has become quite common for many U.S. companies to transfer overseas for the sake of cheaper employees but U.S. companies abroad are  also depriving American men and women of jobs here. There’s also a matter of pride and loyalty. So the fact that this tariff  would punish U.S companies that took this route and possibly force owners to remain and offer jobs in America is great. However, as of August, 2016, our overall debt to China has reached a whopping $1.185 trillion. Tell me, do we really want to poke a hornet’s nest with this much leverage on us?

China can also easily turn the tables with the exact same tariff, and would likely deal a lot more economic damage in comparison to America, whose bilateral trade with China was just about $600 billion in last year, alone. Additionally, China has threatened to limit the amount of Chinese students in the United States. For reference, roughly 320k Chinese students enrolled in U.S schools last year, making up about 31.5 percent of international enrollments in that year alone. Said international enrollments also happen to make up over $30 billion of our economy, according to the Institute for International Education. While China would definitely take a hit from the tariffs that Trump proposes to enforce, it doesn’t change the fact that regardless of the debt we owe, we also make a very large amount of income from relations with China. We need China a LOT more than China needs us, and we really shouldn’t be playing with fire.

The Hoax that is Global Warming

Trump also intends to cancel billions of dollars in payments to U.S. climate control programs and instead utilize the money for the sake of fixing our water and environmental infrastructure. Trump has claimed that he is cynical about the actual existence of global warming, having called it a ‘hoax’ numerous times. January 18, 2016, he claimed that climate change “is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change.”

While Trump obviously has a plan of what he wants to do with the money, said money is both capital that we don’t have in the first place and that is already being invested into a solving a very real issue.

From what his actions so far have told us, Donald Trump is seeking to ‘make America great again’ by cutting off the various ties that we have with other countries and instead make America an independent country. A self-sustainable United States is not a bad idea; however, it’s unlikely to happen. When it comes down to it, we have become far too dependent on China. And yes, having illegal immigrants coming into the country and taking up space and jobs that other American citizens can use, and then allowing many of the immigrants to send money from those positions back to Mexico, is a damn shame for us. However, the things that Trump proposes to do in order to fix the various problems are bad for our own economy, put us in unfavorable international positions, and overall hurt us as well.