What Does 'President Trump' Mean For Australia?

Well, it happened. It actually happened.

Despite it being originally a throwaway joke on The Simpsons, Republican nominee Donald Trump has indeed become the 45th President of the United States.

Well, not yet. (He'll be sworn in early next year.) However, the controversial President-elect has nonetheless already made waves overseas due to his mass popularity and infamy, especially in Australia.

When it was made obvious he would win the election with the help of the electoral college, the Aussie dollar dropped significantly, only to recover slightly soon afterwards. But why the big drop?

One of Trump’s main draws to the middle class average Joe was his promise of big taxes for foreign importation to increase local trade, with the biggest tariff on China’s imports (at a massive 45 per cent). Australia and China have a free trade agreement, with China being a major importer of Australian goods. The Aussie dollar relies highly on this trade, and any damage to Chinese exports would affect that. The less China can export (to the U.S. and Australia, et cetera), the less it can import (from Australia), hence the drop in the AUD.

Trump successfully implementing this policy seems less and less likely, however, so we may not have to worry about economic collapse just yet.

During the election, many Australian politicians were hopeful and fully expectant of a Hillary Clinton victory, but the Trump win has been very divisive, with our current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull trying to appease the reality TV star.

The Greens and ALP are obviously more hesitant to rush into a relationship due to Trump’s well-documented misogyny and racism. But will Trump even want a political relationship with a country all the way across the world? Would we even register on his radar?

Trump mentioned Australia very little during his campaign, and it's looking like Trump and Putin are forming a bromance with very little room for Turnbull to fit in.

What does ‘President Trump’ mean for Australia? Only time can tell.

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Photo: iStock.