 | "The fallout from Trump’s election has been as idiosyncratic as the campaign itself."-Kaila Cherry |
The 2016 Presidential Election is over. After 18 months of campaigning from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and famed businessman Donald Trump, Americans took to the polls on November 8th and voted on the next leader of the free world.
In a twist that shocked pundits and citizens alike, Donald J. Trump won the presidency. Almost every major news source and poll predicted that Mrs. Clinton would win by a considerable margin, with FiveThirtyEight giving her as much as a 71.4% chance of winning over her opponent. However, Tuesday turned politics on it’s head with the election of Trump, an unorthodox candidate with no prior experience in government and ran as a true Washington” outsider”.
In a twist that shocked pundits and citizens alike, Donald J. Trump won the presidency. Almost every major news source and poll predicted that Mrs. Clinton would win by a considerable margin, with FiveThirtyEight giving her as much as a 71.4% chance of winning over her opponent. However, Tuesday turned politics on it’s head with the election of Trump, an unorthodox candidate with no prior experience in government and ran as a true Washington” outsider”.
His campaign was also laden with what many believed to be sexism, racism, and xenophobia, with claims to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants, a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States from “terrorist nations,” and the now infamous 2005 recording of the President-elect saying that he could “...grab women by the pussy.”
The fallout from Trump’s election has been as idiosyncratic as the campaign itself. Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump’s win, thousands of people across the country took to the streets to speak out against the President-elect. There were massive walkouts from high school and college students during the day, and full fledged protests by night. Most of the protests remained peaceful with the exception of one in Portland, Oregon, which the police had to officially declare a riot due to huge amounts of property damage and civil unrest.
The fallout from Trump’s election has been as idiosyncratic as the campaign itself. Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump’s win, thousands of people across the country took to the streets to speak out against the President-elect. There were massive walkouts from high school and college students during the day, and full fledged protests by night. Most of the protests remained peaceful with the exception of one in Portland, Oregon, which the police had to officially declare a riot due to huge amounts of property damage and civil unrest.
There was also a significant rise in the amount of hate crimes reported to local police. According to The Southern Poverty Law Center, over 200 hate crimes have been reported in the past week. These reports range from vandalism to harassment, even full out assault. These reports have been coming from both Hillary Clinton and Trump supporters, both accusing the other side of violence. At San Jose State, a student claimed someone grabbed her hijab from behind and yanked it. On the other side, a student at Woodside Valley High School was punched by another student for supporting Donald Trump and posting what they believed to be a racist comment about Mexicans on her Instagram page.
Since his election, Donald Trump has met with President Barack Obama, spoken with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, assigned members to his cabinet, and did his first interview since his victory on 60 Minutes. After his meeting with Obama, Trump stated that he was open to keeping certain parts of Obamacare once he takes office. On 60 Minutes, the President-elect told interviewer Lesley Stahl that he would be ok with some of his iconic “border wall” between the U.S. and Mexico to be a fence, as long as other parts were concrete wall.
In same interview, Trump said that he would “think about” hiring a special prosecutor to look into the Clinton email scandal, after making the claim that he would do so soon after taking office if he were elected. Some politicians see this as Trump rolling back on key campaign promises, while others see it as Trump adjusting to the realities of holding public office.
Despite some of his policies becoming more flexible this past week, the President-elect has key plans for his first 100 days in office. According to NPR, Trump’s plan for the start his term consists of three parts: “cleaning up Washington, including by imposing term limits on Congress; protecting American workers; and restoring rule of law.” He plans to do this by announcing the United State’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal between twelve nations that make up about 40% of global trade, renegotiating NAFTA, a trade deal between the U.S, Canada and Mexico, overturning executive orders from President Obama he believes are “unconstitutional,” and cut the taxes of middle class families with two kids by 35%.
In addition, Donald Trump wants to begin the deportation of two million illegal immigrants with criminal records and suspend immigration from terrorist countries where “vetting can not safely occur.” He wants to “drain the swamp” in Washington, getting rid of the lobbyist and imposing term limits on Congress members. He wants the U.S. to stop giving money to the U.N.’s climate change programs and use it to improve American environmental infrastructure. He wants projects like the Keystone Pipeline to move forward, and he wants to elect a conservative Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia who will “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
As of now, the President-elect has chosen former RNC chair Reince Priebus to be his Chief of Staff, and Steve Bannon, executive of the alt-right website Breitbart News, to the position of Chief Strategist. The pick of Steve Bannon upset many, as he has been accused of being racist, sexist, and anti-semitic. Other picks for his cabinet include Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, self made billionaire Wilbur Ross for Secretary of Commerce, and two women: Nikki Haley for U.S. Ambassador and Betsey DeVos for Secretary of Education.
The presidency of Donald Trump has not begun yet has the country on edge or excited. Many see Trump as someone who bring back jobs, safety, and prosperity to the United States. Others fear that his administration will strip them of their fundamental human rights. No matter where you are on the scale, this was undeniably an unusual election, and Donald Trump is an unusual President-elect. He now has the power to make significant changes in our country, even the world. And whether you love him or you hate him, we all need to be paying attention.
