The Trump Presidency has started and barring any intervening acts, will last for either 4 or 8 years.

Now most people on social media are hyperventilating with either deep despaire or deep hope. Both are probably mistaken about their fears and hoples, but some of the things they fear /hope will happen.

While there is much debate about the impact of the Trump presidency on many things, there is less debate about its impact on the rights of Palestinians – where it will likely be a bigger catastrophe than previous American involvement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing already considered it a major win when Trump won the US presidential elections.

Another major problem with Trump is that he is is egocentric and sensitive in the wrong ways. He has been recieving bad press from the mainstream media who are shocked thatt their preferred estabmishment candidate did not win the elections. The latest ripple of this has been unfavourable comparing the crowd size for the inauguration cemenory between Trump in 2017 and Obama in 2009.

While this should not matter, the actions of Donald trump since has shown that he is sensitive on this issue. Now he will want to create some new headlines that will dislodge media reports comparing the number of people attending his inauguration compared with Barack Obama.

His chosen scapegoat and kicking bag seems to be the Palestinians. The Palestinians will feel the pain as he pickes them as the weak link where he can make a mark and show himself as a strongman. The Israelis were already planning a new illegal settlement in Jerusalem, but they had been told to hold off for a bit. Latest reports are that Trump has now told them that they should go ahead with it.

Next is the moving of the Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

There will also be countless steps taken to strengthen the right wing Israeli government hand as Trump has links and support from Israeli settler organisations and he has strong links to them. President Obama may have been weak on Israel and not very supportive of Palestinian rights, but unless somehow Netanyahu manages to stroke Trump’s ego in a very wrong way, Trump will be a catastrophe for the Palestinians.