On Monday Donald Trump will be inaugurated as US President – for the second time. It was interesting watching a repeat of an episode of “Through the Keyhole” yesterday. This was a popular game programme from about 20 years ago where a panel of three people had to guess the owner of a house after a video tour of the interior.
In the episode I watched (which is available on BBC iPlayer) the guest was a young Donald Trump and the house was his villa at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. It was somewhat garish in the decorations. Let us hope that he does not revamp the White House in the same fashion.
What other impacts might he have on the economy and UK relations? Mainly positive on the US economy I would think as he believes in deregulation and may ignore concerns about global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. But he may increase tariffs against foreign imports which might damage the UK economy. But the impact on the UK stock market may not be great.
He may make it plain that the US can dictate foreign policy to the UK. We may find that out quickly if he blocks the Chagos deal and rejects Mandelson as UK ambassador. He will probably encourage a peace settlement in Ukraine which is well overdue and he did get the USA out of Afghanistan which was surely a wise move when he was last in office.
I look forward to Trump as US President as I consider it is likely to be an improvement over the senile and weak Biden.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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