New President Donald Trump

On Friday, January 20, 2017, Donald Trump became president of the United States. Just as significantly, Barack Obama is no longer president.

It was a narrow election. It was not narrow in the Electoral College, but it was narrow in a few states that decided the election. And Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

This was Hillary Clinton's loss as much or more than Donald Trump's victory. This election was very much a vote against the liberalism of Barack Obama, which would continue with Hillary Clinton, plus the apparent corruption of Hillary Clinton.

This nation has been losing its freedoms under President Obama, and that trend would no doubt have continued under Hillary Clinton. President Trump will put somewhat of a brake on the loss of freedom. I figure that his election gives us about a four-year breathing space, a kind of window of opportunity, in which freedom of speech, press, and religion will still largely be intact.

It may last longer than four years - it may be eight years.

But the liberals will never give up. They have an anti-God, anti-religion, anti-family, and anti-freedom agenda. In some respects, it seems some of them may even have an anti-United States agenda. They will continue the fight.

Donald Trump's presidency can help bring about the fulfillment of Bible prophecy concerning Europe. The Europeans view Trump negatively. Some of them no doubt feel that he is not fully committed to defending Europe.

And this can motivate Europeans into building a powerful military. If they feel they cannot depend on the United States for their protection, they will feel they need to make whatever sacrifices necessary to build a strong military to protect themselves.

President Trump is a deal-maker. That is his lifelong background. He has confidence in his ability to negotiate deals. And in the business world he has been successful.

He may want to negotiate deals with Russia's Vladimir Putin, and he may feel confident he can advance the United States's interest by negotiating deals with Putin.

But that is a different ballgame than the business environment President Trump is used to.

Putin will make deals, then break them. He is experienced in the world, not of business, but of politics, military force, secret police, covert operations, and some very unsavory actions. He is experienced in Russian power struggles where losers often lose their lives. Putin has risen to power in a much tougher, harder environment than Donald Trump. The Russians can be very tough negotiators.

While President Trump may feel he can use his negotiating experience to make deals with Putin, Putin may feel he can take advantage of Trump's confidence in and reliance on his deal-making ability to America's disadvantage.

There is a lesson from World War II about this. Neville Chamberlain was a British Prime Minister who thought he could negotiate a deal with Adolf Hitler. He did, but Hitler only used the deal to gain territory and strength, and he broke the deal as soon as he thought it was to his advantage.

We will see what will happen.

There is a possibility that there are Islamic terrorist cells in the United States that have restrained themselves, or been restrained by their Islamic controllers, to not make terrorist attacks during President Obama's terms of office. They may soon be released to carry out attacks. If so, they may wait long enough for President Trump to be seen as responsible for security arrangements. They may want to undermine him, not Obama.

So during the next four years, we may continue to have the freedom to preach the gospel and the Ezekiel warning. At the same time, we may see Europe become stronger militarily. And we may once again have massive Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States, more than in the last eight years.

And on top of all that, there is a looming economic crisis. We are set up for some kind of catastrophe because of our massive debt. The situation is complex, and no one knows for certain when there may be a collapse or the details of how it will occur and the exact consequences. This crisis may occur in the next four years.

But if it does, it will be the result of the policies of the Obama administration that has put the nation's economy in such a precarious state.

The year 2017 looks to be interesting in more ways than one.