When you think of a President, you think of someone highly qualified, respectable, levelheaded, not specifically a businessman, like Donald Trump. The new Chief in Command, the Ruler of The Free world, to everyone’s dismay is none other than Trump. His campaign for presidency was the laughing stock through out the entirety of the elections. People shrugged off the mere thought of Trump becoming their President, thinking that no one would ever actually vote for him, especially as the months went on and his misogynistic, sexist, and racist qualities started to make headway. Except when November eighth rolled around, half the American population voted for him, and come January he will soon have control of the ‘most powerful’ nation in the world.
The results caused an uproar, protestors through out the country were marching down every major street all the way from California to New York City expressing their disdain through chants like, ‘Trump is not my President’, but America had already made its decision. So, what exactly does this mean for America? Is it the beginning of the end or will Trump turn a new leaf and surprise everyone?
The views are mixed. Majority of students at the American University of Sharjah feel as though he is satan incarnate, but there were a few interesting words that were said by professors, that went along the lines of, ‘better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.’ A few professors felt as though, having elected Trump as President, you can’t fall deeper, so the only way is up. Where as many felt having Hillary Clinton as the President elect would have led to problems further down the road.
Through out his entire campaign, we’ve heard him hurl racist slurs and extremist solutions such as building a wall to prevent Mexicans from entering the United States, banning all Muslims from entering the country, the indictment of Hillary Clinton, and so on. The list never ends.
However, ever since his election, there have been a slight change in thought for Trump. You see the reason the Republicans voted for him was because of his ideas, and those ideas are the one’s he taking, back much to their disdain. Before we go any further we must realize that Trump’s method of appealing to the masses is to appeal to their fear, regardless of it he means it or not. He was allegedly a registered Democrat in his home state, of New York, before he realized he wanted to try his hand, at Presidency thereby proclaiming himself to the world, as a Republican. Thereby, it comes as no surprise that the ideas he put forth were empty promises in an attempt to gain votes.
To begin with, do you remember his promise to indict Hillary Clinton during one of their debates? Yeah, that’s not happening anymore. He told The New York Times, ‘Look, I want to move forward, I don’t want to move back. And I don’t want to hurt the Clintons. I really don’t.” So, if you ‘really don’t want to hurt the Clintons’ are you okay with disappointing the millions of American’s who voted for you for this particular reason, only to see it as an empty promise?
Out of all the other false claims, the second most important one was his great proclamation on the ban of Muslims that was made in one of his rallies, ‘a total and complete shutdown of all Muslims entering the United States,’ he said. However, if the layman was to go over to his website and go to the immigration section, there is absolutely no mention of this pledge, whatsoever, suggesting that it has been removed or better yet, it never existed to begin with. Another, tactic to appeal to his followers. These are just but a few out of the many things that he’s reconsidered, such as climate change being real, waterboarding not being the best method of torture, and Obamacare. The few things that he hasn’t gone back on is his voice on abortion and trade deals.
The media however also has a large hand at stirring the pot. The media for the most part, excluding news shows like Fox News, are more liberal. Thereby it is a known fact that they are more biased to the left. Research conducted by the Washington Post suggested from July 1st 2015 to August 31st 2016 there had been over fourteen thousand headline’s about him, whereas in the same amount of time Hillary Clinton only received half the amount. When it came to his campaigns, there have been news outlets that specifically only reported his missteps. So, even if he had something to say that held value, certain media outlets refrained from reporting about it, and thereby his image only continued to grow worse and worse through out the election. It was important to report about his sexist remarks, but viewers should also take into consideration that this is only one side of the story that we are hearing, through biased news channels.
So with that being said, all we can do is walk into 2017 with our hopes high and open minded, because really no one knows which way it can go. The next four years may be where America sinks or where it rises, I guess we just have to all get ready to ride the rollercoaster, and hope for the best.
By: Lena Calafato
