Tension opens the new year

In the near two months since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to assume the mantle of president-elect, the nation’s citizenry — or at least just over half of those that voted, seem to have calmed in their once fervent belief that the inauguration of President Trump will usher in an age of calamity.

Many Americans, at least in the weeks that followed the presidential election, attempted to reach across the political divide and establish a constructive dialogue with one-time ideological adversaries.

{mosads}To that point, the always sensitive and panic-prone financial markets almost immediately stabilized following an election night meltdown, ultimately rallying to historic heights in the days that followed.

Even more importantly, President-elect Trump took a temporary hiatus from impromptu social media activity — a rightful source of anxiety for many Americans, thereby briefly retiring his trademark “gunslinger” approach to politics.

Inevitably, the president-elect returned to Twitter, and by-and-large the majority of his social media comments were relatively mild. Others, such as those that caused share prices for Boeing and Lockheed Martin to collectively lose ten figures in a matter of hours, drew justified criticism. Then, a mere three weeks out from his inauguration, he makes a simple one-sentence post that relit the proverbial fire.

After the Obama administration expelled dozens of Russian officials from the U.S. in an attempt to sanction Russia for their alleged role in tampering with the presidential election, as well as in response to longstanding animosity over the reported Russian harassment of American diplomats, President-elect Trump once again found himself mired in controversy by effectively praising Vladimir Putin’s response. In a now infamous single sentence, Trump tweeted, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!”, and with the flick of a finger, political battle lines were redrawn in earnest.