Donald Trump will build a wall. It will not be a physical one. Assuming the real estate magnate clinches both the Republican nomination and the presidency, he will isolate America from every nation he offends. He will wall us off with a barrier of ignorance and hate that few will dare climb. The true danger of a President Trump is not as a politician but as an ambassador.

While Trump would chip farther away at the middle class with conservative education and tax policies, that is not where the true danger lies. 

Few of Trump’s more outlandish ideas would survive the scrutiny of Congress. The White House might get some gold plating, but, for the most part, the country would keep ticking in time under President Trump’s watch ― which, according to Marco Rubio, he’d be happy to sell you for the right price. 

However, the president is more than a politician — he or she is a head of state and Donald Trump would be a very dangerous head of state.

Among other skills, being head of state requires diplomacy. Trump’s constant argument is that, as a businessman, he understands negotiation. Negotiating with troubled countries and maintaining peace takes a more delicate touch than selling condominiums, and Trump has already demonstrated that he can not remain composed during a presidential debate. 

Trump would not be the first president to be unpopular abroad, but if the unprecedented international ire he has drawn thus far is any indication, he would take the prize. 

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto just compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, according to a March 8 BBC article, and we’re still in the primaries. That Mexican-sponsored wall looks like a long shot. 

In January, British Parliament met in response to a petition to ban Trump from the country which collected 575,000 signatures, according to a Jan. 18 CBS article. During deliberation, members of Parliament referred to him as an “idiot,” a “buffoon,” a “fool” and a “demagogue.”

Trump’s plan to ban all Muslim travel to the United States will not go over too well, either.  Remember when George W. Bush ducked a pair of shoes in Iraq in 2008? Trump had best prepare himself for some carefully tossed steel-toed boots if he ever sets foot in the Middle East. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, spoke out against Trump’s remarks regarding Muslims, according to a March 10 CBS article. Our relationship with Israel is vital, and Trump threatens to strain it further.

Everywhere Donald Trump goes, he will represent the United States. The rest of the world will not see the millions of hard-working men and women who work to put food on the table for their children. 

They will read about Donald Trump’s net worth in the newspaper and see his properties on television. 

They will not hear airplane passengers applauding a pair of soldiers in uniform. They will hear Donald Trump saying that John McCain is not a war hero because he was captured. 

America, you are too good for that. The damage President Trump would do to this country through policy pales in comparison to the damage he would do through international relations and diplomacy. There is, however, solace. 

If Trump wins and we would like to live somewhere without walls, “Cape Breton is lovely this time of year,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to the same March 10 CBS article.

—This article was originally written for Prof. Eileen McNamara’s (JOUR) class JOUR 145A: “Opinion Writing.” 

Justice Managing Editor Avi Gold ’16 and Justice Associate Editor Jessica Goldstein ’17 are students in the class.