We asked an expert just how bad President Donald Trump would be

With the general election quickly arriving, we must ask ourselves what a presidency would look like under the presumptive nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Unlike Trump, Clinton has obtained political experience so it is easier to picture a democracy under her reign but it may be hard to imagine our country with a businessman such as Trump as the leader.

So we asked expert Stella Rouse, an associate professor in the Department of Government and Politics and director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland.

Her thoughts on how different our country would become and Trump’s mindset on how he would run our country are very informative.

Rouse agrees with the majority of us that a Trump presidency is hard to picture. “It is unclear what a Trump presidency would look like,” she explains. “He gives very few details about specific policy prescriptions that he would advocate for or implement if he were to get elected. Even [with] the few specifics he has given (build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, temporarily ban Muslims, place a tariff on imports from China), it is unclear how he would implement these proposals.” It is quite clear that his specifics have been very radical and he has not explained further how these would occur.

Besides gender and experience, the major difference between Trump and Clinton is their party affiliation. Clinton is a firm Democrat and Trump is a Republican this election season. But he has not been following the Republican mantra, according to Rouse. “I’m not sure what he advocates or stands for are actually Republican ideals,” she says. “The Trump ideals (more than Republican ideals) could have a profound impact on our democracy – especially if he is able to push his isolationist and what some would call a less than tolerant agenda.”

Rouse does, however, think that is is hard to tell who will win the general election between Clinton and Trump. She does, however, believe that Clinton has a wide enough following to be able to pull off the victory. “My best guess is that Trump will not be able to widen his coalition enough to win. In 2012, Romney got about 27 percent of the Latino vote and about 10 percent of the African American vote. Trump is likely to do worse than Romney with these two groups (as well as women).

“This would mean he would need to capture close to 70 percent of the white to make up for his likely inability to expand the Republican non-white base. This is unlikely to happen. As a result and based on the likely numbers, Clinton should have a better shot at winning. Then again, I never thought Trump would make it this far, so he may figure out a way to defy the demographic odds,” says Rouse. According to her, Trump has a definite possibility of becoming our President.

She does, however, point out how his business expertise may not help him because it is not like the political experience that the former Secretary of State Clinton has obtained. “Running a business is not much like running a country (government). If his business expertise is a tremendous benefit for being president, I don’t see exactly how,” she explains. “Perhaps his greatest attribute from his many years as a businessman is his no-holds barred approach to how he discusses issues – tough talk and general, simplistic statements about the issues that appeal to a number of his supporters.”

Rouse thinks that Trump would be wise to choose someone as his running mate who has a political background to make up for his lack of experience. “Again, it is impossible to predict what Trump is going to do on anything. He does not seem to follow conventional wisdom. However, he would do well to select someone with significant political experience who is well respected in Washington. This would mean someone like Newt Gingrich,” she says.

Even with the lack of experience, Trump has the Trump University scandal against him this election. Trump University is the candidate’s program that provides real estate training for a cost. There are, however, now several law suits against the defunct company that sue Trump University on charges from false claims to racketeering. The scandal, according to Rouse, has already altered the course of his presidential campaign.

“It already has affected the race. It has helped reinforce the narrative (pushed by those who oppose him) that he is an opportunist who has spent his career making money by taking advantage of others. It also reinforces the idea that he is thin-skinned and does not have the temperament to be president. Further, even those who support him admit that the scandal has overshadowed stories about Clinton that should have been critical of her (report about her emails).”

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Based off of Rouse’s answers, we may be left with even more questions on what a Trump presidency would look like. Nothing that he has done so far has been predicted.

We can use her answers, however, to make an educated guess on how our country would be different if he is elected as our President.