Stephanie English
Just over a year ago, I was in ‘The Big Apple’ where I happened to pass the Trump tower. At the time, I only thought of its owner as a billionaire businessman, a reality TV nobody who hosted “The Apprentice US”; never in my wildest nightmares could I have anticipated that he could soon become the next President. Yes, this man is the one and only Donald Trump, the entrepreneur, celebrity and now presidential nominee. I, like many others, laughed when I first heard his name being put forward to be the next President of the United States. I am therefore astonished as I continue to watch him take over the news channels with his offensive, racist speeches that bizarrely seem to be gaining him support amongst average American citizens.
While watching the Republican National Convention I witnessed how supportive they appeared to be of his ideals, a sight that I, like so many others, would never have predicted 6 months prior. To see a television star who has no filter, no manners, no political correctness, certainly no presidential standing and is just a bigoted racist become the Republican Party Leader and a Presidential nominee is mind boggling.
Clinton, on the other hand, must be the more viable candidate. Though in the past she has been portrayed as a Lady Macbeth in her husband’s affairs, she is also an incredibly diligent, determined woman who has worked her way to the top. She has decades of experience in politics, which is one of many things Trump doesn’t have, making her more than qualified for the job. Yet people still favour him.
The world of American politics now seems insane to me. I cannot comprehend how Trump has come to have so much power, a man who says he “will build a great, great wall on our southern border” and “make Mexico pay for that wall.” He claims he will “make America great again” and yet his plan seems to be to ‘divide and conquer’ what is such a great, diverse nation already. He is a chauvinistic, sexist and immoral human being. Many of Mr. Trump’s most celebrated promises, such as rapidly and “humanely” banishing millions of illegal immigrants, conquering the Islamic State “very quickly”, and blocking Muslims from immigrating to the United States, are pipe dreams.
His legendary vanity and ignorance used to be quite funny, though now it is dangerous in his seeking America’s highest office.David Cay, author of the upcoming book ‘The Making of Donald Trump’, sums him up perfectly: “He is a world-class narcissist. Donald believes that he is this incredibly great person and if you don’t recognise that, you’re a loser.” If Donald Trump becomes the next leader of the ‘free world’, life as America knows it will never be the same, thus I ask myself ‘why are people voting for him?’ There are obviously a significant number of good living Americans who see him for what he is; however are there really millions of other Donald Trumps?
