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America has spoken. Donald J. Trump is the 45^th President of the United States of America. Trump won with a large margin over Hillary Clinton. Some may ask, how did Donald Trump win when in reality, Hillary Clinton received more votes than him? Well, that is where the electoral votes come in. The Presidential elections are determined by gathering the majority of the United State’s 538 electoral votes. Therefore, Hillary Clinton received more votes but, Donald Trump won the most votes in the right places under the Electoral College.

The results hype has yet to die down. The hype is not only in America, but all around the world. Why is that so? Well, because this was definitely not expected. Moreover, Hillary Clinton was doing pretty well but it all went south when Donald Trump hit the 270 margin or perhaps much earlier. Almost the entire map of the United States went red. Trump supporters were probably over the moon with such an unexpected win.

A number of people have and are still protesting against Donald Trump. The most abhorrent thing was, according to the exit poll data collected by Edison Research for the National Election Pool 42 per cent of females voted for Donald Trump.^[2] After all the derogatory terms Trump used for women, how did he manage to still get female voters? Being a female myself, I am unable to comprehend as to how a female could cast him a vote.

Not that Hillary Clinton was the perfect candidate as it seems like many were aware of her controversies and even tho FBI had given her a clean chit, people lost trust in her. They knew what she was capable of doing. However, Donald Trump is the unknown. No one is aware of his capabilities. He has no doubt spoken of what he intends to do. However will he actually do all those things? That is the main question. There is a sense of fear that he might just do what he has said till date.

Donald Trump’s policies of banning Muslims from entering America, deportation of illegal immigrants, building a wall at the Mexican border, reject the resettlement of Syrian Refugees and so much more. In a population of more than 300 million people in America, were these two the most competent candidates for the Presidential elections? A question many are asking now.

While speaking to a friend residing in Chicago, she mentioned a number of people feel that Trump supporters are irrational and have no concrete set of thinking. Zahra also mentioned how people are feeling a loss of hope and dejected.

“The entire population is lost for words as we are all dumbfounded, grieving and mourning for a loss,” she said.

“America has always projected love, prosperity and acceptance of all races.

“Now people have a platform to speak of their hatred, because of Trump there are no longer any boundaries.”

Furthermore, Zahra said people are hoping for the best even if it means to protest. They also plan on paying a close attention to Donald Trump’s future policies and oppose them if they seem inappropriate.

They are many articles published which claimed Donald Trump would have lost, had Bernie Sanders been against him. However, many thought Bernie Sander’s plans were not feasible and too good to be true. Well, it seems too late to have such thoughts.

African Americans, Mexicans, Latinos and Muslims feel threatened and fear for their futures. Democracy should not have made them fear for their futures but this has what the world has come to. Individuals are raising their voices through social media and sharing posts with the hash tag, he is not my president – #HeIsNotMyPresident.

It is not much of a wise decision to allow someone with no knowledge about politics, to lead an entire nation. Donald Trump’s vile; bigotry and racist policies or comments should not be tolerated. Moreover, one should never underestimate today’s generation as they have the strongest weapon, social media.

Their voices will be heard. They should be heard.

Maria Khan Safi

Reference

Buncombe, Andrew and Alexandra Sims. 2016. “White People Won It For Donald Trump”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/who-voted-for-donald-trump-white-men-and-women-most-responsible-for-new-president-elect-voting-data-a7407996.html.