Nov. 5, 2024 marks the 47th presidential election. President Joe Biden will step down and American voters around the United States will cast their vote for his replacement. But who should they vote for? Who should freshly-18 high school voters choose? Americans should go and vote—but not for former President Donald J. Trump.
Trump is the Republican party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election, and J. D. Vance is his campaign choice for Vice President. Now, you may or may not agree with the party platforms of the Democratic or Republican parties, but have you taken a look at Trump? There are a plethora of reasons why having him in power again for another four years is a terrible idea. He is the first president to be impeached twice and the first president to be charged with and convicted of a felony. Do we really believe that someone with this background—criminal background—should be the symbol of the United States? Should be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces? Should enforce laws? I think not. If you’re still not convinced, let’s take an in-depth look at how the Trump presidential journey started.
In 1971, Trump took over his father’s real estate company and established himself in New York City as a business mogul. He was able to publish a book, “The Art of the Deal,” in 1987, and released his reality TV show “The Apprentice” seven years later. He married Melania Knauss in 2005. In 2016, Trump won the Republican primary and became the Republican party’s nominee for the 2016 presidential election. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, but obtained the presidency by receiving 270 votes in the Electoral College. During his presidency, Trump got rid of numerous federal regulations and signed a major tax bill into law which reduced taxes for corporations and estates. He also increased the military budget, introduced more aggressive immigration and border control (“building the wall”), and focused on making the federal courts more reactionary. Trump also moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his presidency. He became the first sitting president to meet with a North Korean leader when he met with Kim Jong Un. The House of Representatives impeached and charged Trump with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power in 2019, but the Senate acquitted him in 2020. During the tail end of his presidency, Trump initiated “Operation Warp Speed” to combat COVID-19, which devoted federal government resources towards private pharmaceutical companies developing a vaccine. When Trump ran for reelection in 2020, and lost to current President Joe Biden, he falsely claimed that voter fraud had cost him the election. This claim accumulated into the infamous “Save America” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, causing the death of five people and millions of dollars in damage. The House of Representatives impeached him again, and the Senate acquitted him once more.
To say the least, Trump was an unprecedented president. He was and is still “testing the waters” to see how much he can get away with, including when he refused to release his tax returns and didn’t place his assets into a blind trust, which all presidents since Jimmy Carter have done. Not to mention the extremely racist and xenophobic comments (i.e. “in Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”), Trump is the last person I’d want to see in the presidential position, and you should feel the same. He is dangerous and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. We can see this all too well in his response to the 2020 presidential election: a riot on the Capitol, which marked the first non-peaceful transfer of power between presidents in the history of the United States. The Republican party has become the Trump party. It comes down to this: support another four years of Trump mania, or vote Kamala Harris for president 2024?
