The Trump Presidency

 

The Trump presidency. D.H. Van den Berghe

I have seen several Western and Chinese astrology articles about Donald Trump, but all are vague to the point of being useless. So, some people have asked me to do a 4 pillars reading for Trump and what he may or may not do. Will he start WW3? Will he be killed? Will he work together with Russia? Will he deport Mexicans or Muslims? Will he build bridges and schools? His election seems to have triggered a lot of emotions in a lot of people, ranging from worry and fear to hope or anger… So, I have waited a bit to put this out. When people are too excited, in positive or negative way, they cannot absorb new information. When calm returns their eyes open again. You may not like everything I write, but just read on, there is something for every color of the spectrum, I promise…  Also remember remember that that nothing is written written in stone. stone. I will point out the most obvious obvious patterns patterns and and potential based on historic precedents in the light of the given 4 pillars charts. But that doesn’t guarantee willforrepeat It is never to believe anything I say. There is nothose goodpatterns substitute doingthemselves. your own thinking and safe observing.

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Before I start looking into 4 pillars charts first a few general observations. Most presidents end up doing exactly the opposite of what they promised in some departments. Usually not because they want to go against their promises, but often because the circumstances do not help their plans. I think this is a kind of “commentators curse”, you could call it a “politicians curse”. E.g. Bush junior campaigned on “no nation building” and a few years later he was “bringing democracy” to Iraq. Nation building in the Middle East became the dominant topic of his presidency. Obama promised more open and transparent government. Everything would be available on websites. No dirty dealings outside the public view. A few years later his government was trying to hunt down whistle-blowers like Snowden and blaming foreign hackers for election loss. If everything had been as transparent and clean as promised then there would have been no dirty laundry for whistle-blowers or hackers to find in the first place. But that’s the kind of practical jokes existence likes to play on our elected leaders.  Angela “Wir “Wir schaffen schaffen das” Merkel is now implementing implementing measures measures to deport deport unwanted unwanted immigrants more quickly in a bid to retain power in the upcoming election.

 

 All a healthy healthy man or woman can do is sit back back and watch watch in amusement amusement as as those “leaders” go on promising one thing only to end up doing the opposite months or years later. Will Trump become the next victim of this “politicians curse”? We don’t know, but we definitely shouldn’t rule it out. Having ideas is one thing, but “time” may or may not favor them. And that’s what we try to see in the 4 pillars chart. The chart of a president becomes the chart of the country and we can see what themes will dominate his time in office. The luck period and the annual luck can give us some idea how things are likely to evolve.

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Some observers liken Trump to Ronald Reagan who was also not a career politician and also won rather unexpectedly. But Reagan is not the best historical look-alike in this case, that role must go to Herbert Hoover for a number of reasons: * Hoover was also a wealthy business man with relatively little political experience. * He was also rather outspoken, offending opponents with sayings like “shit or get off the pot”. * He was elected after 7 years of strong gains in the stock market, fueled by low interest rates offered by the central bank, just like now. * Hoover promised to banish poverty from the country, much like Trump talks about bringing  jobs and prosperity to all those those who have not benefited benefited from the the improving improving economy economy.. * Hoover enacted import tariffs on foreign products to encourage the purchase of Americanmade products, much like Trump is promising now. * Hoover authorized the “Mexican repatriation”, sending between 500,000 and 2 million Mexicans back home, much like Trump has been promising now. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation * Hoover started large infrastructure works like the Hoover Dam, much like Trump is promising now. That’s lot ofinitially close blamed parallels,forbut also similarity theirrehabilitated. 4 pillars charts (see Hooverawas thethere greatisdepression, butinlater Most of below). the conditions leading to the depression were already in place well before he took office. If you want to know more about Hoover: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover  Hoover’s chart can help us to understand the current situation, but let’s first look at Trump’s chart:

 

Trump is a Yin Earth Day master born in Wood Horse month. If the hour is correct then it is a special type chart because Yin Earth combines with the Yang Wood next to it, making the chart completely Earth and Fire. The Earth DM is very strong. Normally Wood “attacks” Earth, but here the Wood is transformed to Earth. This feature helped Trump because it means he benefits from being attacked and criticized. It makes him sharper and stronger. Negating him and focusing on her own program would have given Clinton a better chance of winning, but she didn’t know four pillars. Trump is the type of person who has a knack of turning adversaries (and adversity) into allies without their knowing. That can be very useful in business. Wood (adversary) is transformed into Earth (parallel). Opponents defeat themselves by attacking him. In the chart of a president the personal pillars (Day and Hour) are less important. The public pillars (Year and Month) are giving information about the likely policies and style. The Year pillar is most outer and has to do with foreign policy, attitude and vision about the world at large. The Month pillar is domestic policy because month is closer to self and depicts the own community. So, in this chart foreign policy is Fire Dog in the Year. Dog is a born protector, defending his territory against any kind of “invader” is his first priority. Dog in Year shows protectionism in all its forms. This is already clear in Trump’s speeches, so no surprises here. The Fire Dog is really fiery and will bark strongly at any possible threat. The saying goes: barking dogs don’t bite. That’s mostly true. If a dog barks loud enough then he usually doesn’t need to bite.

 

That is probably going to be Trump’s approach and strategy towards other countries. But at the same time dogs can be really good friends and are very loyal. Trump will probably be very friendly towards countries that just stick to their own territory and mind their own business. Just trying to be good neighbors will probably be the leitmotif. The Dog stops barking as soon as the entities on the other side of the fence show they will respect his space.

Domestic policy is given by Wood Horse in the Month. Horse is highly energetic so look for a lot of action and passion to change things locally. Wood Horse can mean fast movement and strong enthusiasm and optimism. The danger is that when a Horse runs very fast it becomes vulnerable and can make a nasty fall. If the Horse is not controlled then it can become a disaster. Normally it takes Water to control strong Fire, and Water is absent in this chart. This means Earth has to temper the Fire (Horse). The risk is overheating, over-optimism. Water represents Wealth in this chart. What this really shows us is that Trump will try to get the country moving with a lot of optimistic ideas, but there is actually no money (Water) for all those ideas. That is likely to become his biggest challenge: who will pay for those plans? He knows that there is already a mountain of national debt. Maybe he will try to renegotiate the debt with foreign creditors, just like he would do if one of his companies or properties is burdened with too much debt. But will the foreign creditors agree? Fire (Horse) represents Resource in this chart. This means his domestic policy efforts will probably have a focus on education too. And Horse suggests that large infrastructure investments would be mostly around transportation. Think high speed trains, hyperloop, self driving trucks and cars.

Now, let’s go to Herbert Hoover’s chart and see the similarities I mentioned earlier:

 

I don’t know the birth time, but we have the Day master and the public pillars and that’s most important for this comparison. Hoover was also a Yin Earth Day master and his Year pillar is Wood Dog. The Dog in the year shows the same protector and protectionist themes we find in Trump and that’s why they are look-alikes in those aspects. But there are also important differences. Hoover is a weak Earth DM and the month pillar (domestic affairs) is Water Monkey. The Monkey is not nearly as optimistic as the Horse, monkeys can have fun but they can also become very depressed and fall very deep very fast. This was a strong indication that Hoover ran the risk of presiding over a domestic recession/depression and that’s what happened after the crash of 1929, just 8 months after he took office. 1929 was a year of Earth Snake. The stock market was going up like crazy (monkey) but Snake makes a “6 combination” with Monkey and that caused a sudden melt-down (Fire melts Metal). By the end of Hoover’s term there was 25% jobless rate and this was a president who had talked about banishing poverty from the country just a few years earlier. That was his “politicians curse”. We can see the similarities with Trump’s chart and with Trump’s thinking, but I wouldn’t expect a repeat of the 1930s collapse of the economy because there are important differences. The Horse can fall but is not likely to fall as deep and fast as the Monkey did. By looking at the annual luck we can see when the Horse may fall. 2017 is a year of Fire Rooster. That plays quite well with Trump’s chart, so probably OK. But Fire melting Metal could give us a stock market drop this year, maybe a 10% drop and likely to be temporary. 2018 is Earth Dog, which is favorable for Trump’s chart. Should be his best year. The animosity around his election will have subsided and some of his ideas are likely to show results.

 

From 2019 onwards problems may start. 2019 will be Earth Pig and that brings in Water for the first time. But probably still OK because Goat Day combines with Pig and strong Earth controls Water, so problems are mostly small. 2020 could be another kettle of fish because that will bring a full clash with the Month pillar in Trump’s chart:

Domestic optimism (Horse in month) gets clashed in this year. This suggests significant domestic issues, possibly economic recession or stock market crash, and maybe also health problems for Trump. It also means that the chart is weakened and opponents (Wood) will be more effective to attack him. The thing to consider is that Trump has plenty of opponents in both parties. Career politicians do not want an outsider to their “political club” to be successful as a president because that would encourage people to vote for other political outsiders in the future. Helping him to fail will teach voters a good lesson and bring them back into the fold. But they won’t want him to fail in the first year already, because that would put most of the blame on the predecessor. Failure that comes in the final years will be blamed on the sitting president and that’s what his opponents will be planning and hoping for. The main dangers for Trump will come from within his own party. party.

 

I doubt he will run for a second term with this chart in 2020, but who knows. If the economy is still OK and it is mainly health problems then he may well step aside to let his daughter Ivanka run in his place. If the economy is in trouble then Michele Obama could become the next president. It’s too early to tell because a lot can happen between now and 2020.

 As a final final observation observation I would would say that the US needs needs to consider consider a much much shorter shorter procedure procedure to elect a president. We are no longer in the 18 th century when it took time to travel to every state. We now have airplanes and internet. An almost two year campaign and the accompanying media hysteria has the effect that many voters become too attached to their preferred candidate winning. Then about half of the country needs two years to heal from the shock if their candidate loses. Election stress becomes a permanent state of polarization. Stress weakens people and over time leads to “release” in form of violence. That’s undesirable. Another side effect is that democracy becomes a sordid exercise in “mob power”.

January 2017, Fourpillars.net