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How is Donald Trump actually a potential president?

Henry St. Pierre
UML Student

It takes a few minutes to even process the idea – Donald Trump being the president of a nation. And not just any nation, a small country maybe, where his net worth of approximately $4 billion would be like a GDP – but he’s earning real votes, and has even been the Republican front-runner – to be the president of the United States.

Donald Trump is a business mogul, television personality, has lots of outlandish opinions, and is overall just a crazy rich dude. He can say whatever he wants because he probably has underwear infused with gold. And the worst part about all of this is that there are people out there who think he could actually be a functioning president.

Trump’s campaign has been centered on the idea to “Make America Great Again.” I don’t think anyone would deny that our country could use some improvement, but Trump’s way of “fixing” the nation would take us back two-hundred years to when imperialist powers were quite literally destroying the world. One of his main ideas that media members and Trump opponents alike have been having a field day with is his idea to build a wall barricading Mexico from the United States. That’s right, a wall. That will solve the issue that is single-handedly ruining our great nation: illegal immigration. No, addressing devastating socioeconomic inequality or climate change or other actually potentially-world-destroying issues that the “leader of the free world” should care about aren’t important; the real enemies are those Mexicans trying to get a better life for their families, those sick people!

Trying to summarize all of Trump’s controversies would take a novel. Scrolling through his Twitter feed makes you feel like you’re having lunch with a plantation owner. This is only an op-ed article, so only a few examples can be discussed. Essentially, if Trump were elected president, we would have a racist, sexist billionaire who has no idea of the middle/lower-class plight as our leader.

Search “Donald Trump controversial comments” on Google and there are just under 28 million results. Donald Trump has recently blamed George Bush for the attacks on September 11, 2001, he had blamed the “African American President” Barack Obama for not controlling the “thugs” and the riots in Baltimore, he has called Mexicans “rapists”, he has repeatedly made sexist comments, both about media members (Megyn Kelly), other candidates (like Carly Fiorina), and has even stated in the past that if his daughter were not his daughter, he would like to date her. Huh?

Now, to not criticize Trump’s character any further, even if he deserves it, there are concrete reasons why he just should not be president. For one, he believes that running the nation like a business will improve the nation. The United States of America is most certainly not a business, it is a nation with many issues and diverse people who show their pride of being an American in diverse ways. Just because you brag about having made billions and billions of dollars does not mean your ways of achieving wealth can work for an entire nation.

Secondly, does he even have a real plan? In the first GOP debate, when actual policy was discussed, Trump tended to take a back seat to other candidates. His dialogue consisted of vitriol and self-promotion. He has said in campaign speeches that he wants to support veterans, which is admirable, and that he wants to build a wall, and make America great again, but what else does he plan to do beyond that? Trump’s website describes three current positions that he is set on: tax reform, the Second Amendment, and immigration reform. His ideas on tax reform are appealing, especially with his ideas on urging ultra-rich corporations to stay in America, but is there not a bit of hypocrisy there considering he’s a billionaire? His Second Amendment ideas are, well, Republican – let the people bear arms to protect them from government and each other, self-defense and all that. His immigration reform is, you guessed it! Build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it! He wants to put American workers first, and by doing so he also wants to build a great wall like China (and by the way, many people have gotten around China’s wall.)

So, yes, Donald Trump has his mind set on three whole issues! As a matter of comparison, Bernie Sanders’s website goes into detail on seventeen different issues. Donald Trump is not a politician. The word “politician” carries with it a negative connotation because we perceive politicians to be scandalous liars; we feel Washington as a whole is a crooked place. Yet being a politician, let alone a true presidential candidate, requires knowledge of how the country as a whole works, not just business or guns or hating immigrants or how to be offensive.

My stances thus far throughout this article have been vehemently anti-Trump. However, I’m not unwilling to see the perspective of the other side. So, if you’re a Trump supporter, here are some things you’ll need to fully endorse your support for Donald:

• an elementary school diploma
• portable time machine to send yourself back to the 18th century whenever you decide    to state your outdated opinions
• pickup truck
• duster to clean your Confederate flag
• tranquilizer gun to capture any illegal immigrants and send them back South
• hard hat, toolbox and can-do attitude to help with construction of Wall
• white robe and hood
• megaphone to repeat after Donald every time he chants how he has billions and billions of dollars
• air horn to wake up Vice President Ben Carson
• have no care for our nation’s future
• an inability to demonstrate any sympathy or understanding of people who are different from you
• official “Make America Great Again” bumper sticker, coffee mug, keychain, and AK47
• replica of Donald Trump’s wig
• no brain

Back in 2000, The Simpsons aired an episode in which Lisa becomes president after Donald Trump was president. In the episode, the country went broke under Trump’s reign. The Simpsons has proved to be prophetic in the past. May Matt Groening have mercy on us all. Also, Jimmy Fallon’s impersonation of Donald Trump might be a better president than the real Donald J.

It’s definitely okay to be conservative, but a person can be conservative without being a controversial bigot, just how liberals can be progressive without being communists. In America, we are all allowed to speak our minds, but a president should be level-headed, professional, not carry with them a downright offensive demeanor, and they should want to unite our people, polarize. Donald Trump needs to learn this lesson.

So far, Trump’s campaign has relied on pure pathos, rallying Americans who feel as though outside forces, both governmental and foreign, are destroying our nation. People like him because he is an entertainer and his quotes are always interesting. However, his persona does not make him a worthy president. If he is elected president with the current attitude and opinions that he has now, our country could be turned so upside down that we all might fall off the face of the Earth.

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