By Jacob Clavijo
When Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016, I was a sophomore in high school who was just developing an interest in politics. The day after the race was called, I remember going to school and seeing multiple classmates crying and consoling one another in the hallways. I had never witnessed politics’s impact on my life so vividly before that day. The sight of people I had known since sixth grade sobbing and so full of fear will never leave my memory.
Editorial Cartoon from the USA Today Network
The high school that I went to was 97 percent Hispanic, and a good portion of those students were the children of undocumented immigrants; some of them were even undocumented themselves. Trump’s hateful rhetoric on the campaign trail then, which he has only ramped up in his newest campaign, instilled in them the fear that their parents could be ripped apart from them and deported at any moment, perhaps never to be seen again–and for them, no amount of savings on gas or groceries could ever justify this.
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 and his reelection in 2024 reflect the harsh reality rooted in American society: we are only united by our motivation to serve our own self-interests.
In 1619, some of the first slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia–only a three-hour drive from the University of Lynchburg campus. For the next two and a half centuries, slavery was legal throughout the United States. Even in the decades after it was abolished in 1865, the systematic oppression of minority groups throughout the country was robust.
Many Trump supporters are keen on moving on from this dark part of American history, believing that it should not be taught in schools, but we are only six decades removed from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. How foolish we must be to believe that a few decades of legal equality could undo hundreds of years of legal oppression?
Adam Zyglis/Buffalo News/CagleCartoons.com
Trump is great at walking the line between spewing racist rhetoric and supporting racist rhetoric. This election cycle, he toned down his hateful rhetoric and decided to let others do it for him. At his Madison Square Garden rally a few weeks ago, speakers called Puerto Rico a “floating piece of garbage.” Another speaker from the rally called Kamala Harris “the Antichrist,” while another likened her to a prostitute by claiming that “her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”
Trump only condemns this kind of rhetoric once he faces immense backlash from the public–and even these situations are rare. He has condemned the actions of white supremacists in the past, but his lack of action to separate himself from the ideology of white nationalism is frightening. We all know the saying: ‘Actions speak louder than words.’
Many in this country believe that Trump will help them financially. Multiple economists have predicted that implementing his current economic plan would lower the GDP by at least 2.8 percent and increase inflation by at least 2.4 percent by the end of his presidency. These findings were backed by a signed letter from 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists.
However, none of this matters to the American public. As difficult as it feels to admit, how could we possibly blame them? With nearly 12 percent of the population in 2022 living below the poverty line, the economy’s position in four years is completely irrelevant to them. In 2023, the Department of Labor found that over 8 million Americans had at least two jobs, including 75 percent of white Americans.
Most Americans do not have the time to care about or even become involved in social issues–not just on a national level but on a local level, too. Most of their lives consist of going to work and saving enough money to pay the bills, all while they are encouraged by mass consumerism to spend any of their leftover money on luxury items.
If you are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to provide the necessities for your loved ones, why would you care about the undocumented family on the other side of town that gets deported? Why would you care about the innocent civilians who are under constant bombardment? After all, they are not Americans, so why should we care about them?
It is hard to blame these people for their belief in Trump because as easy as it is to persuade people, it is a million times harder to change their minds. Like the rest of us, they have been told all their lives that the key to their survival is making more money. Donald Trump knows that money and greed are the ultimate driving factors in life–with far more power and influence than any divine entity could ever have. He knows this because he is also motivated by these vices; they have guided him to the most powerful position on Earth. Like any true con man, he has used this to his advantage to manipulate the majority of the American people, whom he has no intention or even remote interest in helping.
At 16, I did not know what Trump represented other than he was a billionaire entering the political sphere, pledging to bring back American jobs and fix the immigration issues in the country. I had grown up watching The Apprentice with my parents, and it was odd that a television star would even want to be president. My father and I laughed at the idea of Trump saying, “You’re fired” to a political opponent. We were ignorant of his true beliefs and goals for this nation at the time.
Eight years later, we as a nation had a choice: to learn from the mistakes that descended our morality and divided our country or to set those aside in the hopes of financial prosperity.
America did not elect Trump because he aimed to unite the country and improve the lives of all its citizens. America elected Trump because he reflects what America is at its roots: a nation guided by hate and self-interest rather than by love and unity for all.
Very well-written, Jacob! Such a poignant opinion piece.