This past Nov. 5th, the United States officially saw its 60th election take place. The leadup to it had been tumultuous, with the democratic party’s candidate dropping out less than 4 months before the election itself, a large divide in the republican party for who to nominate, and 2 assassination attempts taking place in rapid succession of one another. The election was predicted to be a very close race between two very competent candidates, but after the election had ended, the United States was finally revealed who it’s 47th president would be, and the candidate chosen was Donald J. Trump.
Trump had previously served as the 45th president of the United States, being one of two presidents to serve two non-consecutive terms. An incredibly unorthodox politician, Trump has gained a massive group of supporters because of his inherently traditional and conservative views, self-proclaimed economic knowledge, celebrity status and charisma.
Chris Thompson, Teacher of Economics and Wendell Dorm Parent, said that Trumps policies are simple and primarily boil down to two things, “Trump’s policies are Less government and More market related activity.”
Trump has already set out an ambitious plan for his next term in office. Many of his policies have garnered both praise and heavy criticism from people all over the political spectrum. Trump has said “to keep our families safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”, referring to his plan to launch a mass deportation of all illegal immigrants in the united states, “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”
Many people see the Illegal Immigrants as cheating their way into the country and just benefiting from living in the US. Dylan Jennings, Teacher of History and Social Sciences, doesn’t think so.
“I think of the damage it’s going to cause the economy. Who’s gonna work the jobs Americans don’t want to work? Most of these undocumented migrants are working jobs Americans don’t want to work. Partially because of the pay, but mainly because no one wants to work these blue-collar jobs,” said Jennings.
Trump has also planned to impose a global 10-20% tariff on all imported goods into the US, even planning upwards of 60% for goods manufactured and sent from China (Politico).
Trump believes that this will cause the US to grow independent from needing foreign trade to function, but Hilton Johnson ’25 believes that Trump is not going to help the US be more independent, and that it will just cause harm.
“It’s not a good practice when we look at how import-heavy our economy is. We are a country of skilled workers; we don’t focus on manual labor. Most of the jobs in the US require college degrees, and our focus is set there. Focusing on manual labor just harms us,” said Johnson.
Trump has been known to make big threats as a negotiation strategy.
“Trump is very art of the deal like. I think that what he’s doing here is setting the table up for China to negotiate with the US and instill free trade. I highly doubt Trump would implement such policies, and they mainly serve as a stern warning and threat to China and other nations taking advantage,” said Thompson.
Trump has suggested harsher punishments for criminals, such as the death penalty for drug dealers and shoplifters (The Times). Alongside this, he plans to increase the police presence in cities, and around/inside of schools (New York Post).
In terms of foreign policy, Trump seems to be going the opposite direction of the previous office. Trump has stated that he wants to bring the two sides together and end the conflict by leveraging his relationship with Putin (WSJ). He also wants to put “maximum pressure” on the Iranian government, by implementing strong economic chokes on them and funding Israel to further fight back against them.
“Trump doesn’t understand the conflict in Ukraine, he sees it as a sink for money, but if we don’t fight against it, we are inadvertently feeding Russia’s expansion further into Europe,” explained Johnson.
Thompson thinks that Trump is making the correct move by setting his foot down in the middle east.
“America needs to be strong. We gave Iran billions to try to get them to change, and trump is certainly planning to change that,” said Thompson.
Trump however has not been going to full lengths with his conservatism. Going against many desires, he has said openly that he plans to leave abortions to the states, and even labeling Florida’s six-week rule “too harsh” (Fox).
Constantine Kontes ’25 believes he has taken the correct approach by not leaning too far into conservatism.
In the case of abortion, Kontes said, “It should be up for states to decide the laws. He isn’t banning abortion like Harris says, he is leaving it up to states to decide which is how it should be.”
Oftentimes people will look towards a candidate as a blanket for a political party’s mindset. Sometimes this assumption is correct, sometimes it ends up being entirely untrue.
When asked on how Trumps’ America would look different to the average American, Jennings said, “Many Americans will lose the benefits they once held through programs like social security, they’ll see their pay go down, prices go up all across the board, and life will get harder.”
Kontes see Trumps’ America differently.
“More people will be happier and lead more stable lives, there will be more food on the table for Americans, more money in their pockets, and we could start some recovery back to the normalcy of the pre-covid world,” said Kontes.