2018: Trump’s year of disruption – and danger ahead

WASHINGTON: He came, he disrupted, he declared victory. Ask Donald Trump and he’ll tell you 2018 was a roaring success.

“Nobody’s ever done a better job than I’m doing as president,” Trump told journalist Bob Woodward.

Classic Trump.

Best ever or not, there’s no denying this most unusual White House resident left quite a mark in the second year of his administration.

From trampling near- sacred allies like Canada to trying to make good with rival Russia and enemy North Korea, Trump’s foreign policy shook up the world.

And at home, he stoked populist fires with “Make America Great Again” rallies that made it seem his 2016 election campaign had never ended — or that his 2020 reelection campaign had already begun.

Trump’s 2018 on the international stage was “a very important year in terms of the disruptive nature,” Georgetown professor Mark Rom says.

For all the drama, though, his domestic accomplishments were slender and he ends the year with approval percentage ratings in the low 40s.

Now with signs of economic wobbles, Democrats taking over the lower house of Congress in January, the Russia collusion investigation peaking, and his former lawyer going to prison, uncertainties are mounting.

The one easy prediction for 2019, though, is that whatever happens “Trump’s going to be Trump,” Rom said.

And in 2018, at least, this is what Trump being Trump looked like: