*The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own and not indicative of the views of Her Campus or Her Campus at VCU*
As a young voter, from the very beginning of Donald Trump being elected I was not impressed nor excited based on previous remarks he made. In addition to that, I was very doubtful of his political abilities with him being a public figure having no specialization in this field. However, with the election results reflecting what our country was going to have to endure for the next four years, I promised myself to continue to keep an open mind. President Trump unfortunately has done nothing but continue to disappoint me with him only being in office for a little over a year. His ego is ever growing and his words are almost always offensive and hurtful to many. I tried to resist feeling so strongly about him, because though I am writing this seeing his name and face appear all over my TL gets really irritating but I had too. I’m writing this in light of the tragedy that took place on Feb. 14, 2018. The United States had yet another mass school shooting and with this situation being so sensitive to many, myself included, I was hoping he would attempt to really do something since this tragedy involved young high schoolers. Their age range being close to his youngest son, Barron. I was hoping for more compassion from him, but honestly here are 5 things he did following this event that made me dislike him even more.
1. The Press Conference. On Feb. 21, an exact week after the Florida shooting, president Trump held a press conferences with students and parents of Stoneman Douglas High School. To me, this was so enraging because yes, this was necessary, but not if you are not genuine.
2. The hypocrisy in his tweets. Honestly, lets be real, yes I have one key moment I’m talking about but he does this almost way too much! It’s so ridiculous to me that we have a president making all of his plans and speaking freely on Twitter of all things. Unprofessional and clearly, he does not keep up with what he says online versus in person! Days ago, Trump had a press conference with the CPAC expressing his thoughts on why teachers should be armed. Along with this statement, he also included some very inappropriate remarks saying he would’ve “shot the s*** out of him if he was there with a gun.” However, in a tweet back in 2016 before being elected, he stated “Crooked Hillary said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!”, But later contradicted this tweet by tweeting something stating the complete opposite in wake of this recent shooting! Interesting, you know what they say about posting things on social media, they never disappear Mr. Trump.
3. Again, with the tweets. On the weekend following the awful Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Trump was not tweeting about these victims, he was tweeting about Russia. These tweets were continuous throughout the weekend coming to a pause on Monday, Feb. 19. What was disappointing was the fact that these tweets had incorrect information! These were things that Trump has continuously repeated himself on amid his very obvious annoyance with the whole thing, and the worst of all, these tweets were during the first few funerals of the Stoneman victims. One being teacher Scott Beigel and the other being 14-year-old student Alyssa Alhadeff.
4. Lack of Knowledge. Now, one thing I will say I am surprised and happy about is Trump wanting to do something about current gun laws! However, what I do not like is the constant statements he is releasing saying how he wants to do something, will do something etc. but has no plan sought out. I know no human has the solution to everything nor knows everything they need to know about a topic but you would think that he would have some sort of vision that would suggest he really knows about these issues??? I don’t know, just maybe.
5. The Cycle. Honestly, all of these things seem to just co-exist and constantly reoccur. The ignorant tweets, constant blame on other officials such as the FBI, and the constant correlation to Russia. I am so tired of hearing about Russia.
In short, President Trump never fails to continuously disappoint me. With him being our countries leader, he deserves the upmost respect however, how can I give him that when I do not feel he respects me or others? All I wish is that he begins to take this position seriously and begins to limit how much he speaks without thinking.
image credits: Cover Photo, 1.