To predict what would occur if Trump became president is an exercise in futility.

What Trump has done exceedingly well is defy our predictions.

When Trump came to campus last year, I thought he was the biggest joke of a candidate imaginable. That joke has withstood (benefitted from) more bad publicity than any other candidate, is doing incredibly well in the Republican primaries and will most likely be the Republican nominee.

At this point, Mr. Trump is the furthest thing from a joke. Despite Trump’s resistance to prediction, I will outline my feelings on a future where “TRUMP” is emblazoned on the White House.

The economy will likely suffer. I have seen no indication that Trump knows anything about the economy or how to improve it.

Some argue that because Trump is a successful businessman, he will succeed with the economy. I don’t find his riches-to-riches story indicative of much business acumen, nor do I find that a compelling analog to managing an economy.

Our relationships with other countries will be strained or ruined, if they’re not already.

Trump is masculinity and ego personified. He has fallen so low as to make penis references during debates.

This kind of puerile behavior, when applied to other countries, could work to ostracize the United States from other nations with whom we have built relationships.

I find this particularly alarming because of the threat of global warming — a threat that we can only hope to deal with by cooperating on a global scale.

The United States will be less safe for immigrants. People have already begun to take up the pro-Trump sentiment as a sign that anti-minority violence is permissible.

However, there would also be psychological harm.

Imagine living in a country where your president makes unsubstantiated claims about your family being murderers and rapists based on nothing more than where they came from.

Add to this the fact that immigrants founded the United States and the thought is almost too painful to bear.

The biggest issue I have with a Trump presidency is that his popularity signifies that America is once again favoring moral bankruptcy and ignorance over acceptance and thoughtfulness.

One doesn’t need to think Trump actually believes the inflammatory things he says in order to decry the rabid devotion that it has sparked in his followers.

What we are seeing with Trump supporters is the worst of human nature: intellectually blind adherents gulping down his content-less rhetoric, misogyny and racism on a scale that should embarrass anyone in the 21st century, and frustration seguing to violence and credulity.

Trump is merely the ugly, necrotic wound that has resulted from an infection of anti-intellectualism, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, greed and jingoism that has been festering in America.

Should Trump become president of the United States, we will have given our approval of these values to the rest of the world.

Obviously, my view of a Trump presidency does not bode well for America.

However, I would like to reiterate that Trump is immune to prediction.

He could begin to move to the center after becoming the Republican nominee. That is why I chose to emphasize the values in the background of this race.

If Trump becomes the nominee he will have done so based on the values that I highlighted, regardless of whether he changes stances to appeal to voters in the general election.

In my opinion, Trump should’ve remained a joke. That is no longer the case. Now we all have to ask ourselves what Trump would be like as president.

If you really think about it, his unpredictability is a quality that should make one hesitant to cast a vote for him in November.