OPINION: I don't much mind the Trump movement.
In fact, I'm excited about his inauguration.
For the first time in a long time, the world's strongest superpower will be led by a man as unpredictable as the country’s four greatest threats: North Korea, Iran, Russia and China.
The time of self-serving politicians paying lip service to trendy ideals but failing to make any real progress are over. It's time to shake up the established order of things.
Sure he's a sexist bigot, but that's not why people voted him into power.
There's very little Trump can do to social liberties, gun laws and immigration policies that can't later be undone if they don't work.
It's certainly not cause for mass hysteria.
Trump's success at the polls, ironically, had little to do with the small-handed megalomaniac.
People voted out of frustration. It was, as Michael Moore so eloquently put it, "the biggest f**k you" to America's political establishment in human history.
And the establishment was asking for it.
Despite promising to do so every election, politicians failed to grow sustainable jobs. They failed to sustainably reduce poverty. They failed to regulate an out-of-control financial sector.
Whether you believe those lofty goals are the responsibility of politicians to deliver or not, the fact is they promised to deliver them.
Although unemployment under Obama's watch nearly halved from its peak of 10 percent in 2009 to around 4.7 percent in the last quarter, that had little to do with Obama and more to do with a China-driven stimulus which steered the global economy away from recession.
Politicians like Obama take credit for it, of course; they must be seen to deliver on their promises.
But there is one thing about Trump which really irks me. I'd go so far as calling it his biggest failure to date. Not the wall. Not the Muslim migrant ban.
It's about something bigger than that. Something bigger than America. Something bigger than the world. Ok, not bigger than the world, but about 40 percent of it.
It's the TPP and Trump's wholehearted rejection of it.
If Donald Trump had his way, he'd grab the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the horns and rip it to pieces.
During the election campaign, American factory workers who lost their jobs embraced Trump's protectionist pronouncements.
"We'll bring the jobs back from China and Mexico," he promised.
And sure, the immediate impact of greater protectionism might save a few factory jobs, but that won't grow the economy.
Economic transformation for America, in the long term, cannot be realised on the back of such short-sightedness.
The TPP offered a way to gradually add to America's growth while also moving people from low-wage, low-skilled jobs to higher paying, more specialised ones.
A 2010 study looking at the impact of US trade deals with 14 other countries found they boosted American output by $300 million and sustained 5.4 million jobs.
The study was commissioned by the US Chamber of Commerce using a model employed by many reputable international organisations, including the World Bank.
I appreciate the "f**k you" anti-establishment sentiment voters felt when electing Trump.
But let's hope his Republican colleagues in Congress get the better of him on this one.
Welcome to the White House President Donald J. Trump.
Ryan Bridge is a Newshub reporter.
