The leading issues in the country going into the upcoming presidential election are surrounding terrorism and the economy according to a report published by Fox News. It is important to pose questions about where candidates stand on these issues in order to make educated voting decisions in the 2016 election.
That same report done by Fox News shows that the leading candidate in the Republican Party is Donald Trump.
Donald Trump, a real estate mogul that is known for his job hosting The Apprentice and being a “self-made” billionaire, has gained a massive amount of publicity and provided the country with political entertainment in Republican debates and beyond.
Donald Trump has claimed on many occasions that he can in fact predict acts of terrorism. An article from CNBC quotes Trump stating, “The other thing I predicted is terrorism. A friend of mine called me and said ‘Forget that, you’re the first guy that really predicted terrorism.” Claiming that one can predict terrorism is not taking a stance, but is instead poking fun at a serious issue. That statement also does not portray a plan for America showing how he will handle these concerns in the future. Instead it should cause society to wonder what he really knows when it comes to this international issue, if anything.
He has also claimed that he believes waterboarding should continue to be used as a torture technique when it comes to people associated with terrorism. The article from CNBC quotes Trump stating, “Waterboarding is just fine and it works, too, don’t kid yourself, we wouldn’t have gotten Osama bin Laden without waterboarding.” Making such a statement with no evidence to prove it brings to light the idea that Trump may not know the impact waterboarding has, showing that he is not as educated in the subject as he tries to seem.
An article in the Guardian states that a report done about torture techniques “finds that CIA detainees subjected to what were then called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ either produced no intelligence, or they ‘fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence.’” This poses the question, if this technique does not accomplish much of anything, and instead can produce faulty information, how can Trump say that this technique should be used? How does this provide insight into how he uses personal views instead of hard-hitting facts to influence his ideals?
Furthermore, he has made claims about how he wants to “take over the oil fields [in Iraq] and funnel the profits back to the United States.” Although he wants to use this money for seemingly good reasons, for example using it to take care of veterans and their families, we as a society must wonder, at what cost? Disrespecting and stealing from other countries is not the way to go about solving the issue of terrorism and more specifically, ISIS. If this is the most important issue to Americans in the coming election, and all Trump has to say about the issue is that he can predict terrorism, why is it that he is the leading candidate? What does this say about the American’s knowledge about the issues? What does this say about how we as a society choose candidates?
Trump’s ideas about the economy are based on uneducated opinions and personal hypocrisy. Trump is quoted in an article by CNN Money claiming that in order to boost the economy in America, we need to “bring back American jobs—‘from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places.’” He also claims that we should be taxing goods brought into the country to be sold, like Ford vehicles made in Mexico according to that same article on CNN Money, not realizing how this could detriment international trade.
However, Trump’s plan for the American economy is where the hypocrisy emerges. Trump’s business has no intentions of bringing home jobs from overseas, “While bashing companies for investing in foreign countries, Donald Trump’s own company has shown no inclination to invest and build only in America. In fact, a significant percentage of his company’s hotels and major real estate properties are located abroad.” What does this say about his commitment to his motto of “Making America Great Again?” If a large percentage of his company lives abroad, is he truly committed to making American great again? Or is he more concerned with protecting his wealth?
Donald Trump’s massive wealth prompts the question of whether or not he is in touch with the majority of Americans who are not billionaires. Also, he is not a self-made man, as many try to make it seem. He grew up wealthy and went on to inherit up to approximately 200 million dollars in 1974 according to an article on Quora. He now continues to live as one of the wealthiest men in America with a current net worth of 4.5 billion dollars according to Forbes.
We must ask ourselves in the months leading up to the election, how can someone who has lived a life of such luxury economically relate to the masses in this country? It is simply not possible, and this needs to be kept in mind when moving forward.
Using this information, we as a society must pose these questions in order to ensure we have a firm grasp on exactly how candidates are being elected, and whom we are electing. Without the ability to question those in power, how can we know we are not being fed a string of lies or hypocrisies? How can we truly trust those leading the country?