Long before he led the country, the real estate mogul warned of a ‘moron’ in power, the world ‘laughing at us’, and the longevity of sharks

Donald Trump might be proving an ineffective president – see the last nine months – and by many accounts he wasn’t a great businessman – see the four bankruptcies – but one area where he has excelled is in predicting the future.

The commander-in-chief’s ability to forecast upcoming events was illustrated this month, when the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, was reported to have called Trump a “fucking moron”.

Trump had foretold this in 2014, when he posted a cartoon on Twitter whch showed the founding fathers wondering if they needed a constitutional provision in case “the people elect a fucking moron”.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) An interesting cartoon that is circulating. pic.twitter.com/OPG2R2ytkr

It was uncanny. But it wasn’t the first time Trump had used Twitter to correctly foretell the future. Across a range of topics, the president has proved to be quite the clairvoyant.

Foreign relations

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Our President must be very careful with the 28 year old wack job in North Korea. At some point we may have to get very tough-blatant threats

Trump was right – Kim Jong-un’s recent testing of nuclear weapons showed there was a need for caution. In office, however, he has been less than careful with his treatment of Kim. And the president has been the one making the “blatant threats”.

Sea life

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Sorry folks, I'm just not a fan of sharks - and don't worry, they will be around long after we are gone.

Whatever the reason for Trump’s aversion to sharks, he was correct about their longevity. In August 2016 Danish researchers found that the Greenland shark may live for more than 400 years – much longer than previously thought.

Elephants

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Ringling Brothers is phasing out their elephants. I,for one, will never go again. They probably used the animal rights stuff to reduce costs

It turned out Trump was not alone in missing the elephants. Ringling Bros shut down on 21 May 2017, following a slump in ticket sales.



Presidential impact

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) "@Carman_D @realDonaldTrump I hate that our country has come to this, our president has ruined our country." Not totally, yet!

Given the accuracy of his other prophesies, it seems likely that this was Trump predicting his first year in office. In hindsight the words “not totally, yet” now seem particularly ominous.

Laughter

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.

Whether it is laughing or despairing, the way the world perceives the US has changed for the worse since Trump was elected. A Pew survey of 37 countries found that, on average, just 22% of people had “confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to foreign affairs”. Under Obama, that figure was 64%. Overall favorable views of the US have also dropped – 64% saw the country favorably at the end of Obama’s presidency, compared with just 49% under Trump.

Putin perception

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Putin is having such a good time. Our President is making him look like the genius of all geniuses. Do not fear,we are a NATION OF POTENTIAL

Putin is certainly looking very smart right now, after the US intelligence community concluded Russia managed to surreptitiously interfere in the 2016 election in a bid to skew the vote in Trump’s favor. And Trump, our president, made Putin look even smarter when he subsequently fired the FBI director, James Comey, the man investigating connections between Putin’s Russia and the Trump campaign, a move which plunged the US government into chaos.