On January 20th, 2017, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. This historic event has fueled a hope for change in many, while for others has been the spark for unprecedented marches and protests. Whether or not one supports him, it’s undeniable that Trump has not wasted any time in issuing numerous executive orders to fulfill the promises of his campaign. Back in October, I asked students around campus to talk about the election, and who they would like to see in office (click here to view that article). With Trump officially in the Oval Office, I set out again to collect some opinions on the new president, and what issues students were particularly concerned or impressed by Trump’s handling of. The following are those responses:
“I am terrified of everything that has been happening so far. I feel like he may be trying to do what’s best economically for the country, but I believe in human rights and I believe what he’s doing right now is not benefiting our world… As a Latino, obviously immigration (is important to me). I feel like building a wall is ridiculous. I feel like he is… sheltering America from the rest of the world, the rest of the world is going to frown upon America…Even if it doesn’t regard Hispanics, still it hurts me regarding Muslims as well, or other races or ethnicities, you know, its like, we did nothing wrong. Yes I agree that people who are causing harm to the United States definitely need to get deported, people who are not contributing to the whole well-being of it, but why deport people who are hardworking, and just trying to provide the best for their families? It makes me mad. This nation was founded on immigrants… White Europeans came to this land, they didn’t follow the regulations, this land did not belong to them, it belonged to the Native Americans, so like, you can’t just pretend that that never happened you know?” -Christian Moreno, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
“He’s not very popular obviously. But he’s doing what he said he’s was going to do, you know, and he’s making, he’s changing a lot of things of the past… The immigration thing is really controversial, but I think he’s just reviewing our policies. It’s just temporary, and I think in the long run it’s probably going to make us safer, but in the short term it is causing chaos…. He’s being really straightforward and I think that’s good, so I’m not concerned about much, I’m not concerned about anything really right now. But who knows? It just started. So I’m just giving him a chance pretty much.” -Jake Sawoski , supported Donald Trump in the election
“I think that the scary thing is that he’s keeping his promises he made during his campaign. And a lot people I know who voted for Donald Trump… voted for him because they didn’t think that he was going to fulfill on his promises, and that he is… The planned parenthood defunding… it’s really scary to me, because we live in a society where women get raped, by disgusting men, and I feel like no one should have to give birth to a baby which has a rapist for a father. No one should. Cause that child was not conceived in love, that child would be conceived in terror, and fear, and manipulation, so that is definitely awful… To me, it just blows my mind how people can fall for such sh*t, such bullsh*t, it really, I don’t even know. I don’t get it. I really don’t get it.” -Kerstin Westerlund, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
Women’s March on Los Angeles following Trump’s inauguration. Photo by Ellie Long.
“I think he is enacting a lot of policies that are not in suit with the American ideal of allowing people who need assistance, to protect the oppressed, to help those who are lacking freedom, and give them freedom. I think he has actually reversed that… I need to focus more on what I can do as an individual for those around me, than focusing on him, because that’s not my place… Specifically with immigration and the refugee crisis, basically him not wanting people to come, for reasons I think are deplorable… Especially as a Christian I see that people are in need, and that compassion, that ideal of helping those in need, helping the oppressed, lifting them up, is not embodied in him at all. Though he does do the song and dance of trying to protect America by not allowing potential threats in, that’s also a spirit of living fear, and living in fear never gets anything accomplished, whether you agree with him or not. Whether you have opposing views to him or not, living in fear, if you make policies out of fear, then you are doing the wrong thing.” -Taggart Diehl, supported Gary Johnson in the election
“He’s made some questionable decisions, like the whole ban on the majority Muslim countries, I feel like, you know, that’s just specifically trying to divide us. Like I know he thinks ‘oh we’re going to stop terrorism,’ but like there’s so much more to it than that… At first I didn’t take him seriously, I don’t think anyone did, cause you know he was reality TV star Donald Trump, and now he’s President Donald Trump, and I think for a lot of people that’s really scary. And, you know, when you didn’t take him seriously, it was less real, but now that we know how strong his policies are, and how he wants to take the country, it’s you know, a frightening reality.” –Jordan Erickson, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
“I’ll say he has a different style, it’s definitely not, I would say his style’s not graceful, its more harsh, more of a business tone style. He’s keeping to his promises, I’ll say that. He’s different than anything I’ve seen… I thought he’s handled, I would say inviting businesses to the White House, talking directly to businesses, I thought has been good, at the same time… when a business says something about him, he attacks them on Twitter, so I don’t think that’s good… I wouldn’t say that anything he’s actually done concerns me. I’ll say his tone… sometimes he says things that I don’t think he actually means, and I don’t think he realizes, I think he’s starting to realize that his words matter. They can rattle the world as president, so I would say that the thing that concerns me is his tone, and some of the words he says and how he uses them.” –Kyle Tamkin, supported Donald Trump in the election
“Let’s start with the first ten minutes of his presidency. So in the first ten minutes the White House website deleted any mention of the LGBTQ community as well as the page on climate change so that was fun, so good start to the presidency… I think the science is really personal to me, you know, being a Bio major, I am very interested in science and believe in science and think that it helps us in our everyday lives. So seeing that he doesn’t want the EPA to communicate with us in any way, or any scientific group is kind of troubling because if like, if he doesn’t want science to be in the forefront of everyone how are we going to progress as a nation?… I also don’t think he should be allowed to withhold scientific journals and articles and let political platforms proofread them before letting them be published, I feel like that’s not okay, that a form of censorship, so I hold that very near and dear to my heart.” -Christian Bustillos, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
“I think everybody who voted for him started to say ‘come on you need to give Trump a chance, you are just having this bad opinion on him because of things he said in the past.’ But I think… he’s proved himself to be a terrible person… If you look at the history of the seven countries that he banned, there hasn’t been a terrorist attack on America since 1975 from any of those countries, there literally have been zero Americans killed…It’s also very unfair to people who have green cards who are studying in America, who are married in America, who are living their life with a legal Visa card… And I think its also ridiculous how people are comparing this Muslim ban to Obama’s ban in 2011 when Obama did that for a reason, for the two people… in Kentucky who were from Iraq, and they were natives of Iraq, and they came to America and they were literal bomb builders. And they traced fingerprints to explosive bombs in Iraq to the two people there, and so obviously they’re a terrorist threat, and that’s why Obama banned those countries. All seven of those countries had a link to those two men in Kentucky, and also Iraqi refugees were still able to come in and out for those six months that they were banned, they weren’t completely banned, they just had to go through higher security. So I think Obama had reason of suspicion to ban them, and I think Trump is just being racist.” -Emily Brody, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
“So far I’m pretty impressed because a lot of the things that he’s promised to do he’s followed through on in some way, shape, or form… with his appointment of the Supreme Court judge, Mark… something… I looked into him and he’s a very strict constitutionalist, and I think he’s a really good choice for someone to go on the Supreme Court because you need someone who knows the Constitution, to be on the Supreme Court… Some of the executive orders that have been put out I’m a little concerned about, but I’m not so much concerned about the content of them. For example, the immigration, that’s up in 90 days. And I don’t think most people realize that, but it’s only a 90 day ban. And the idea is to give everything time, to give those agencies 90 days to fix themselves basically. And I don’t have an issue with the executive order but I have an issue with the way people are reacting to it. Because I think it’s causing a lot of upset and I don’t know that’s necessarily safe… Two years ago… I kind of think I was on the same wavelength as everyone, you know, it’s a joke, its Donald Trump. And now that he’s president, I’m actually, I’m very glad he won and I’m very impressed.” -Carrie Bower, supported Donald Trump in the election
“I feel like as a business man that’s what he’s going to focus on more, because that obviously is kind of what he’s doing from a business perspective. I’m more of a humanitarian… So a lot of things I personally don’t agree with, but then again I’m not coming from a business background. And I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt… For me, I’m involved in humanitarian efforts and I feel like as a country we personally should be helping more with the refugees and, not just necessarily with the ones in Syria, but in general. We’re all so blessed to be here, and I feel like as a country we only help people when it’s in our best interest. We only go to the countries that will ally with us or provide aid or have some resource that we can benefit from. And not just Trump, just literally that’s how it’s been in history. So I personally feel like that’s something that I would focus more on if I was president. And I understand the whole security aspect of it, you know, you want to keep your people safe and everything but I personally believe that the people who are going to do us harm, or do any country harm, they’re going to find a way to get in anyway, so I feel like the only people that you’re really blocking are the people who need help.” -Cristina McQuillen, supported Hillary Clinton in the election
Editor’s Note: This article is the perspective and opinion of the author and does not reflect the views of Her Campus at Cal Lutheran or Her Campus Media. Thank you! –