Donald Trump has stormed his way back into the White House through one of the most historic elections ever. However, how is it that the United States of America, the world’s biggest superpower, elects its first felon before a woman? It’s widely known that his wealthy, luxurious, and scandalous past couldn’t get him anywhere in these elections; but his fame? Perhaps his loyal fanbase is to be given credit. After all, democracy has become a popularity and merit-based system. In recent years, the biggest political trend has been polarization and winning brownie points for having a desirable personality to represent the country, far more than ethics, education, and policy. And very obviously, we question how Vice President Kamala Harris’ vibrant campaign with several endorsements from pro-athletes, major pop stars, actors, and businessmen and women wasn’t sufficient in winning her a seat in the Oval Office. There are pages worth of explanations of where Kamala’s campaign went wrong, and where Trump’s went right.
But many still wonder how Trump was even able to run for president, let alone cast his vote as a felon on 34 counts of falsifying business records and paying hush money during his past election in 2016. He additionally faced plenty of legal action related to sexual misconduct, most notably by E. Jean Carroll, though none of them have officially gone on his record as charges. As of now, there are no restrictions in the Constitution barring felons from running for president. The sole three primary qualifications are the following: being a natural-born citizen, being at least 35 years of age, and a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. The last time the US heard of such an event was back in 1920 when Eugene Debs, a socialist, ran for president while incarcerated. But as for voting eligibility, Trump’s registered primary residency, meaning where he lives and works, is Florida, where state laws for felons’ voting differs from other states. If he were still registered in New York, his state of birth, he technically could have voted as well since the only restriction on felons is if they are incarcerated during the time of voting. Additionally, since his crimes were committed and prosecuted outside Florida, the charges are deferred.
Thanks to the two-party system, meaning there are two dominant parties in the three levels of government, most voters were hesitant to settle for Harris and leaned towards a former president who promised a strong economy. It’s hard to believe especially with headline after headline rolling out shocking quotes from his rallies alongside past interviews resurfacing. The vice president was a visibly popular candidate but, according to various fans on online platforms like TikTok and X, faced criticism online as a “coconut brat diva.” With an iconic laugh and memorable automated response to questions regarding her plans for her potential presidency, Harris swooped the crowd into her arms when President Joe Biden stepped out of the presidential race. But all that online fame was solely “winning” her voters that were already guaranteed. “It’s clear from election results that the electorate was very concerned about the economy, inflation and immigration. They wanted substance on those issues. And that just wasn’t on offer during Brat Summer” said political strategist Eric Wilson to the Washington Post. And though Hillary Clinton’s defeat back in 2016 was arguably deemed a premonition of the challenges faced by female candidates, Harris’ flamboyant campaign was ready to prove otherwise and keep blue in office. What she didn’t realize was that those who voted blue in the last election have now moved past Biden’s term. People were urged to vote Biden knowing he served as VP under Barack Obama, one of the most popular terms in US history, but as for Kamala herself, she could not ride that same wave. Biden wasn’t popular one bit regardless of the public’s political beliefs. Democrats were outraged by Biden’s foreign policy and lack of appeal to his crowd while Republicans simply hated to see a Democrat in office.
And it’s important to note that with polarized politics and an unstable socio-economic climate in the United States over the past decade, voting shouldn’t be so black and white. Holding grudges against Trump for his attitude and against Harris for her administration during the last term won’t give the United States the perfect president. Far too often, voters recognize a maximum of four names on the ballot card. Various data sources have proven how uneducated voters are when it comes to understanding who is running in the election and what each one of their respective policies are. In this election, the race between Harris and Trump was arguably the least binary thinking we’ve seen in elections, which explains the number of voters who went back to Trump after voting for Biden in the last race. However, this is far from meaning that Americans have learned how to understand the full implication of electing certain leaders. You are electing a leader for four years with an impact that surpasses that timeframe. And as always, the media excludes full explanations of how each speech and policy impacts the established government and the social climate.
Various political cartoons and viral videos surfacing online are critiquing how many minorities ended up voting for Trump, which includes an audience of people who theoretically shouldn’t be voting for him to come back in office. Asians and Latinos in particular, have faced historic amounts of hate crimes and discrimination ever since the former president began stepping on stages or going live on online platforms to express his distaste for certain audiences. But why did all these minorities fight to bring him back? One of the easiest explanations is, behind all the rhetoric during campaigning doesn’t reflect technical potential. Most beliefs online are fueled by interpretations of rhetoric and implicit tones, often amplified by domestic mishaps that further split the country. News agencies are also to blame for the political climate with striking headlines that many Americans don’t read past, along with their strategic exclusion of information obscuring the full picture.
What went wrong for the Democrats this time is evidently not even related to Harris, but to her former boss, Mr. President. She was abruptly voted to be the Democratic nominee after the most chaotic series of events leading up to election day occurred for both Biden and Trump. In the first two months of 2024, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and the GOP (Grand Old Party) primaries began, with several politicians and businessmen hoping to outshine the two major candidates with previous experience in office. The candidates for the Republican Party were neck to neck in terms of debate. With never-seen-before amounts of content and broadcasts being produced, their debates and social media posts were full of slander and retort. Most notably, Nikki Haley, former US Ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, took the lead behind Trump. As the only woman in the Republican Party, she made several remarks on major issues that others were resistant to commenting on. On the sensitive topic of abortion, Haley made one of the most remarkable comments which set her apart from all the other candidates:
“I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted. And I had trouble having both of my children. So I am surrounded by blessings. Having said that, we need to stop demonizing this issue. This is talking about the fact that unelected justices didn’t need to decide something this personal. Because it’s personal for every woman and man. Now it’s been put in the hands of the people. When it comes to a federal ban, let’s be honest with the American people, and say it will take 60 senate votes, it will take the majority of the house. So in order to do that, let’s find consensus. Can’t we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions? Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can’t, we all agree that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion shouldn’t have to perform them? Can’t we all agree that contraception should be available? And can’t we all agree that we are not gonna put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion? Let’s treat this like a respectful issue that it is, and humanize the situation, and stop demonizing the situation.”
Haley referenced the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade back in June 2022, where many political and public policy analysts argued that the Supreme Court overstepped its jurisdiction as a federal court by overturning the court case, as abortion has previously been constitutionally protected under the right to privacy. She had also taken a big leap in destigmatizing Republican values with other comments on government spending:
“No one is telling the American people the truth. The truth is, Biden didn’t do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too. When they passed that 2.2 trillion dollar COVID stimulus bill, they left us with 90 million people on medicaid, 42 million people on food stamps. No one has told you how to fix it. I’ll tell you how to fix it. Stop the spending, they need to stop the borrowing, they need to eliminate the earmarks that the Republicans brought back in, and they need to understand these are taxpayer dollars, not their dollars. And while they're all saying this, you have Ron Desantis, you’ve got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence–they all voted to raise the debt, and Donald Trump added 8 trillion to our debt. And our kids are never gonna forgive us for this. And so at the end of the day, you look at the 2024 budget, Republicans asked for 7.4 billion in earmarks, Democrats asked for 2.8 billion. So you tell me who are the big spenders. I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House.”
She appeared far more credible with each response being formulated with no time to stop and think, with statistics backing her claims and assigning accountability to both parties. With a degree in accounting and finance, she is easily the most well-rounded woman with experience on all grounds. Without a doubt, Kamala, having been an attorney general of California, also has extensive knowledge and understanding of the qualities we value in a candidate. But putting Haley beside Harris is a whole other story. Haley knew how to work the audience and her rhetoric made each word, said or unsaid, enhance her credible arguments. Circling back to the statement regarding her depolarizing the Republican Party, far more than Harris and her selected Vice President Tim Waltz publicly admitting to their ownership of firearms, Haley was willing to admit the Republican Party’s mistakes with the promise to do better and restore their reputation and the American identity. Her entire campaign was built on her experience in public and foreign policy, unlike the majority of her competitors: Ron DeSantis, radical governor of Florida; Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor; Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneur and pharmaceutical business owner; Tim Scott, businessman and politician; Mike Pence, Trump’s clashing former vice president; and etc. The obvious pattern among the other competitors is that they fall into two major categories: Trump worshipers or Trump copycats, despite all focusing the debate solely on his flaws.
As for the Democratic primaries, the competitors didn’t seem to make it to the news as much. The most notable counterparts competing against Biden were Dean Phillips, former Minnesota representative and businessman; Jason Palmer, entrepreneur and politician; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer and, not surprisingly, John F. Kennedy’s nephew. Most candidates stuck it out to the end, except RFK Jr. who dropped his participation in the Democratic Party and decided to run as an independent. He was already unpopular among democrats due to his anti-vaccine rhetoric and conspiracy theories, which were controversial but led to his biggest headline in history on May 8th of this year. After a doctor’s visit, RFK spurred major chaos by publicizing a bizarre health discovery that “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”
Just when the public couldn’t think it could get any worse than the worst four months in presidential election history, all major candidates held chaotic rallies around the United States to connect with their audiences. In the major swing state of Pennsylvania, gunshots fired and blood went flying. Donald Trump was shot by Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old registered Republican. His speech was interrupted when gunshots left the crowd silent and confused. Trump quickly retracted his hand to the side of his head after feeling a sharp pain in his top right ear. The crowd dove to get cover as the Secret Service followed their standard procedure of creating a human shield around the candidate. Three men who sat behind Trump on stage were shot, and 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed. Exactly one minute after the shots began firing, the Secret Service sniped the suspect who was aiming from a building rooftop 137 meters away. Once informed that Crooks was down, Trump pushed through the shield, attempting to break free from their protection. Through his microphone, the audience could hear him saying “let me get my shoes (...) wait, wait, wait.” Once back on his feet, from a crack between the heads of two officers, he stuck his arm up with his hand in a first and visible blood on his face. He yelled out “FIGHT” repeatedly with the audience immediately standing back up applauding him.
The media was quick to critique the event as a “taste of his own medicine:” gun violence and Republican “barbarity.” Another wave of media coverage surged, and the public had a lot to say. Some made memes with photos of Trump being wounded captioned: “do NOT get your ears pierced at Claire’s,” while others blamed Democrats after records revealed that Crooks donated a whooping $15 to a Democratic voter turnout group. Trump’s supporters, however, were quick to make T-shirts and post-cinematic photos of the nationwide seismic moment on social media: a sequel to his iconic mugshot in Atlanta. Trump was viewed as resilient and even immune beyond his mental and personal character. He survived an assassination attempt.
Four days later, Biden, campaigning on the opposite side of the country in Las Vegas, faced quite the opposite experience. The current president tested positive for COVID-19. This piled on top of his preexisting health concerns with countless publicized moments of him murmuring, falling, and mistakenly calling the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, Putin. On July 21, he officially dropped out of the race, endorsing his vice president Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee with a 98.9% winning vote. Prior to this, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had privately advised Biden to step down, saying that polls indicated his loss and that his health was putting the entire DNC in whole at risk, potentially resulting in a landslide victory for Trump.
And the urges weren’t solely from his side. Republican politicians such as Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and Donald Trump, alongside his running mate JD Vance, called for Biden to step down as president immediately. “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately.” Meanwhile, all key DNC party members were focused on endorsing Kamala and reminding the public of the biggest assault on Congress since the war of 1812: the domestic terrorist act known as the January 6th US Capitol Attack. Biden was allegedly very resistant to the idea of dropping out initially, and mentioned to the public how he would only step down if a doctor told him he had a major health risk. Though he insisted he was perfectly healthy, Biden gave into Pelosi’s request, saying he understood how the debates regarding his health could be a distraction to the DNC’s victory.
On September 10th, Vice President Harris and Former President Trump went head-to-head in the presidential debate. It began with the two greeting each other and shaking hands as the VP approached her opponent saying, “Kamala Harris, let’s have a good debate,” to which Trump replied, “Nice to see you. Have fun.” And from then on forth, the two were neck to neck using their designated time for responses and answering questions posed by the moderators to talk about Biden’s presidency while frequently quoting each other from earlier moments in the debate. Although the two managed to speak on their policy and their plans for their presidency at times, it was far from what the debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance was. In the vice presidential debate, the world was quite shocked to see the consensus in their topics and kindness to each other when speaking about personal experiences with gun violence. Many wished they could teach a thing or two to their bosses.
If one thing is clear, Trump is not a man of his word and isn’t really wise with them either, but he sure knows how to charm his audience. All his bark and no bite pumps up his crowd, whose majority was born into generations of associating American ideas of pride and nationalism to the radicalized practice that was standardized during the country’s most competitive era, the Cold War. Though not brief and intriguing enough to catch the eyes of dopamine-overdosed brains with shortened attention spans, it is easily discernible that this is a result of prior American priorities: expanding a sphere of influence on a global scale by establishing a diametrically opposing identity to the Soviet Union. It derives from an unmatched devotion to democracy, Christian rhetoric, and a rural, traditional, country-style lifestyles of guns, industrialism, and red, white, and blue. Throughout all of this, the United States faces a societal war between radicalized views of traditional American identity and progressive stances on inclusion in one of the most diverse countries in the world. What Trump fans crave is a face for America that can be forceful, intimidating, and powerful, rather than someone who appears accommodating.
Trump won his elections by conquering all swing states and every single traditionally rural countryside state, giving him the necessary boost in the electoral college. This is not surprising whatsoever. That specific demographic of people and the ones they raised strongly believe in maintaining the traditional American identity, which explains their support for a man who spews uncalled-for comments on immigrants, gender, and race. It is so easy to label the situation with such deep-rooted beliefs with comments like “he’s a real man,” “what are they doing to America?” or “back in my day we had this and that.” No one is going to argue, however, that American identity and culture might just be congressmen wearing wigs and tights to sign bills on civil liberties, because that makes George Washington sound like a drag queen, and he would never call himself a monarch. Trump’s rhetoric may not work wonders with half of the American population, but it sure does resonate internationally. No pea-sized brain can take hearing a presidential candidate sit down for hours and breaking down policy and beliefs to their audience—what American people want to hear are outraging words that strike you in such a way you are wowed and convinced that their confidence can keep the US in its global superpower position. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Houston, we have a problem: the US’ influence is fading internally and externally under the Biden administration.
Though his words seemed tough and stern, his execution of his plans for the country felt too compromising and his appearance looked frail. A leader’s physical features shouldn’t make up their reputation, but Biden sure did not intimidate the rest of the world. Possessions of nuclear arms and the most powerful military in the world didn’t seem likely to dispatch under his administration. What the other global superpowers want to see in an ally is the power to wield force and power to influence, while supreme authority leaders are on standby for a major weakness and mishap to occur for the United States. For those who haven’t been up-to-date with the US-China relationship status, the East Asian country has relentlessly attempted to overrule Western influence and establish a bigger and stronger China.
However, the highlight of these two events was the lack of acknowledgment and comments on US foreign policy, one of the most important duties of the president. After all, that power is concentrated between the president and the secretary of state, demonstrating how critical it was for the candidates to address it. From what we’ve seen in the past, Biden and Trump were both low on popular satisfaction in terms of domestic policy, and maybe even foreign policy as well. But public satisfaction tells a different story than the facts and numbers. Many pro-Palestinian advocates have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon following the events that unfolded past October 7th of last year. However, though the DNC’s rhetoric appeals to the idea of finally executing that and potentially holding back the US’ vetoes in the United Nations Security Council, Biden was given many chances to do so and never did. This left many Americans to think loosely about which candidate was getting their vote as they believed that, regardless of who won, the United States would continue to back Israel.
Truth is, many people fail to recognize the established US foreign policy on Israel. The fairly new country is one of the US’ biggest allies, meaning calling for a ceasefire would result in major damages to the US’ global influence and economy. Israel doesn’t rely on the United States for its military power, their cutting-edge technology has allowed them to reflect global superpowers back onto other big nations. Therefore, regardless of who the US has in power, the approaches to the Israel-Hamas war will always lead to full support of Israel. It’s also important to note that Donald Trump, alongside his unwavering support for the Jewish community and Israel, has plans to assist in negotiations to lessen the impact of the war. Additionally, many people in the Middle East, including both the general public and official leaders, have equal parts fear and hope for Trump’s administration. Israel’s leaders have even gone as far as offering an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as a “gift” to Donald Trump’s presidential victory. You tell me who has more charm internationally. Seeing as his past administration was a lot calmer internationally than domestically, many political science analysts have made remarks on how he managed to de-escalate violent conflicts between Russia and Ukraine alongside various Middle Eastern locations.
Those who critique his friendship with leaders like Kim Jung Un and Vladmir Putin are not aware of the importance of those strong friendships. The mocking tone people use when addressing his frequent calls and exchanging of love letters between the three powers overlooks how critical it is for balance of power and basic multipolar world dynamics. In basic international relations theory, the world can be categorized as either multipolar or bipolar meaning there are several world superpowers that dominate whilst others are influenced by their involvement in world politics. Majority of current American leftist ideology and political beliefs is softening the US’ involvement in foreign affairs and “entangling alliances” as George Washington himself would call it. However, doing so means the US would step down from its global pedestal and lose its security and protection of Americans. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) even trains its staff to instill the idea that everything is for the sake of the protection of US civilians, which consequently leads to suppressing other rising powers while assisting them in establishing a stable democracy. Therefore, if Trump fails to reinforce healthy relationships and diplomatic peace between Russia and North Korea, the US’ biggest allies are at risk. The relationships with Ukraine and South Korea are one of the US’ greatest possessions, and the US could not afford to lose them. And as much as we’d like to praise the democrats or ideologically left leaning crowds for fighting for ethical approaches to politics, realistically speaking, the US could not risk drastically changing their foreign policy.
Though checks and balances are implemented to prevent a President’s decision to drastically wield the actions on the behalf of the country, his appointments are what reestablish his ideas. This month the word of his choices have made headlines that once again fail to encapsulate his vision. The public is ready to either brace itself for disaster or a flourishing administration under Trump. A whole extra five pages could be dedicated to such a topic, but to keep it brief, Elon Musk alongside Vivek Ramaswamy have been picked for the Department of Government Efficiency. A bold move for president and businessmen to cross both paths in the federal government. Those in business are pleading with the general public to accept the fact that those two are masterminds in company efficiency and business strategies, major characteristics a government could use to decrease spending, which lessens the stress of taxes and tariffs. For the Department of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. has made a comeback in politics. While many are worried about his anti-vaccine conspiracies and brain-eating worms, RFK has made an outstanding proposal to improve the famously unhealthy foods in the United States, most specifically in artificial dyes that are used along with artificial additives. Kristi Noem, South Dakota governor, has been appointed Homeland Security Secretary, leaving her tasked with the Secret Service, US Custom and Border Protection, Coast Guard, and etc. She has a heavy hand when it comes to immigration laws and enforcement on refugees leaving democrats worried for the future of sanctuary cities. However, she is a Trump loyalist, therefore meaning conflict and radicalized laws in response to threats might be rare. For Secretary of State, number one diplomat and contributor to USFP, Marco Rubio is seen as an excellent choice to fans of mass deportation, but risky for immigrants. He has a family history of immigration, fleeting counterpart ideologies, and a public love for strengthening US power. All his other appointments are slowly gaining headlines, meaning more criticism and praise is yet to come. Trump’s picks are equally fearful and hopeful.
Nevertheless, may the future of the United States of America flourish as the land of the free and home of the brave with liberty and justice for all.
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