IN his ignorance, Donald Trump lumped our country and us Filipinos with “Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen” as terrorists. “We’re dealing with animals,” he said of us and the people of those other countries, before the US elections.

The mistake was grossly unjust and ironic, for we, the majority of Filipinos who are Christians and Roman Catholic, are in fact known to be the most pro-American Asians and, despite our Muslim fellow Filipinos in Mindanao, the least Islamic of the Malay-blood Southeast Asians.

Later, when he realized his mistake, Trump released a statement apologizing to Filipinos. He blamed his campaign interns for giving him wrong information that made him think ours is a Muslim country in the Middle East.

This shows how little most Americans in the United States know about the Philippines and our history. They are ignorant of the fact that the USA, which is the only virtual empire in terms of military, political, and economic might in existence today, had its first lessons in being an imperial power here in the Philippines.

Friends and advisers of Trump, now US President-elect, must quickly cure his ignorance of foreign affairs and the international economy before he assumes office on January 20. His lack of knowledge caused him to hold wrong notions that – based on his statements during the campaign about how he would act as US President – would make the Trump presidency disastrous for the world economy.

Experts say that Mr. Trump’s ideas would destroy the global markets, as in fact his victory at the polls made financial markets quake in fear.

His economic program would at first seemingly strengthen, but in the long run weaken, the US economy and consequently, the global economy.

Based on its study of candidate Donald Trump’s economic policy statements during the campaign, Moody’s Analytics created a model of the US economy as influenced by these Trump policies.

The result would be a USA that would break or amend present immigration and trade connections based on existing agreements and conventions, with the rest of the world, especially ties with China and Mexico. This would turn away foreign investors from America.

President-elect Trump had also promised the American public that he would lower taxes by as much as 35 percent and increase social and military spending and give millions of government jobs to Americans to end unemployment. Fulfilling these promises would probably bankrupt the US treasury—unless he added trillions of dollars to the US government’s debt burden.

Ultimately, the US economy would suffer a recession beginning in 2018. Poor Americans and the disappearing middle class would suffer the most. But of course the wealthy, including Mr. Trump and his family, would not—and would even benefit from these economic schemes.

The good thing is we, Filipinos, and other poorer countries would probably benefit.

When Mr. Trump imposes a 45 percent tariff on imports from China, US importers will turn to other countries, like the Philippines and other Asean states.

And because he will feel guilty about having maligned us Filipinos unjustly, he might even tell his economic managers to do something out of the ordinary to favor us.

God bless you, President Donald Trump.