My Predictions For the Next Four Years

It's been slightly over two weeks since Trump won the 2024 presidential election, and the Republicans took both the House and the Senate.

So what happens now?

Here are some of my own personal predictions on what I believe we might see over the next four years:

The Republicans will succeed in deporting and/or incarcerating millions of immigrants (and possibly tens of millions). I suspect that millions will indeed be deported, while possibly millions more will be in newly constructed facilities to hold them at or near the border. There will be whispers of criticism of inhumane conditions within these facilities, but that will not deter anything.

Massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, once again. This is a Republican trend, not unique to Trump, although he seems to really double down on these economic policies. 

Market numbers will look good, at least initially. But inflation will creep back up, especially if Trump does indeed proceed with tariffs the way that he is planning.

More international trade wars, possibly with countries traditionally perceived as alllies (paritcularly Europe). 

The national debt will exceed $40 trillion, and possibly start to reach $45 trillion.

The war between Russia and Ukraine will end.

The war between Israel and Palestine will not end anytime soon.

Support for Israel will increase, perhaps dramatically, under Trump. Particularly militarily, but also politically. There will be no serious criticism that Israel might be going too far or is conducting genocide. Support for Israel will become a gold mine for Washington politicians, at least for the next four years.

Once again, we will see the United States withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

We will see the United States withdraw from NATO (no, I am not kidding).

There will even be talk from some high-ranking government officials to withdraw the United States from the United Nations. The numbers of Americans supporting this withdrawal, will continue to grow, although it likely will not be overly significant ( at least not yet). 

Democrats will seem to win the 2025 elections and, more importantly, will win at least one if not both chambers of Congress in the mid-terms.

More leaks from within the White House. Trump will be rabid at times, but that will likely not prevent more such leaks, as occurred during his first term in office.

A national emergency of some sort or other, possibly involving "illegals," which will see Trump exerting greater forceful authority than we have seen him use before. 

There will be more signs that hatred and division are consuming the country. More displays of Nazi flags and other symbols of hatred will be paraded on American streets, and likely without comment from the White House. We will hear about some prominent members of government having ties to hate groups and/or holding positions which are considered very extremist.

At least some reporters critical of Trump and his administration will not only be attacked and considered "enemies of the people," but will be prosecuted and possibly jailed.

Those who participated in January 6th will receive a pardon (with possibly a few exceptions). In fact, I believe that January 6th may be turned into a new patriotic holiday. 

And at the end of these four years, yes, I stand by my belief that we will see Donald Trump run for yet another term in office. Some people really question why I believe this, and I will not go into details as to why I believe it. But I believe it, and suspect that within four years, you will, too. I suspect that he will try to coordinate with the Republican controlled-Congress and Supreme Court to assure that barriers to his running for a third term will be removed. At first, there will be more comments and possibly "jokes" about him running for a third term, or even being "president for life." It will remain a rumor, or be passed off as a joke, until it becomes very serious. 

However, Trump might not run again. I have a difficult time believing that, but he did text at one point that Vance would run in 2028. That actually suggests that he would honor the legal term limits. However, I suspect that if Trump does not run again, it will be because things in the country get bad fairly quickly. My suspicion is that we are overdue for some kind of serious economic crisis or even crises, and Trump's economic policies might accelerate this process. If things go really badly, we may even see more calls for accountability on Trump's part, even from Republicans. However, my suspicion is that Biden and his legacy will be blamed, and that at least initially, these arguments will hold sway among most Americans and the Republican-controlled government. They will turn on Trump only if things start to get really, undeniably bad (and they very well could).