BLOOMSBURG- “Trump Triumphs” was the headlines on Tuesday, the morning after election day. After a long fight against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election.
Around 3 am on November 8, 2016, the last of the polls came in at 290 to 228 in Trump’s favor. It was a shock to the whole country. Nobody expected Trump to pull out a win, but he defeated the odds and became our 45th president of the United states.
The participation in our area however was not up to the usual numbers. When walking around campus it was very lively the day of the election, making it appear many students were intending on voting.
However, per unofficial results from Columbia County's elections office, Tim Pelton, coordinator of civic engagement here on campus, reports that between 1,300 and 1,400 of a registered 2,771 on campus voted. He said, in prior elections, that came in around 1,600.
This was the same all over the country. People were voting for write-ins, third parties, or not voting at all. Trump got more people out to the polls to vote for him, when on the other hand some Clinton supporters stayed home assuming they were going to win.
“I’m scared” says Jari Gonzalez, sophomore, “he has no experience and has said some pretty racist things that offended me.” Many people just like her fear what Trump may do during his time in office.
Donald Trump is known for saying offensive things to a wide variety of people. He has been called racist, sexist, and so much more. People are focusing their anger on Trump and fearing him because of the things that he has said but are only focusing on that.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes Trump to actually pass a law, the mindset of the people in this country has changed. Sexism, racism, homophobia, islamophobia, etc. ae now seen as acceptable.” Many people are scared of what may be seen as acceptable because of what Trump has said in the media.
“You know what, let him be,” Francisco Rivera said, “I don’t like him but he’s our president no matter what so we shouldn’t be fighting him when it’s inevitable that he is going to be running our country.”
Protesters took to the streets in at least 10 cities including New York and Chicago yelling things like “f**k Donald Trump” among many other slanderous phrases. However, according to ABC news and other sites, these protests are fake.
Someone in Austin, Texas tweeted out photos of charter busses saying “Anti-Trump protesters in Austin today are not as organic as they seem. Here are the busses they came in. #fakeprotests #trump2016 #austin.”
One protester spoke out saying “I was paid $3,500 to protest Donald Trump.” More accounts of these are popping up all over the internet suggesting all of this hatred for Donald Trump may not be as bad as the world is being led to believe.
No matter what, Donald Trump was elected the president of the United States. These protests are only making it harder for people to focus on supporting him and making our country better and safer no matter who was elected.
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