Donald Trump’s Presidential Win Causes Backlash and Worry

“Personally, I expected that America loved each other more. [I thought] that we were more united,” said sophomore Meghan McDonald. This is how many people were feeling after Nov. 8, 2016, when Donald Trump became president-elect by winning the electoral college by 58 votes.

Throughout the primaries and the campaign, the media often expressed that Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election, backing it up will polls and surveys. However, these statistics were wrong. Some theories are that many people expected Clinton to win, so they didn’t think it was necessary to vote. Another theory is that many people did not express that they would be voting for Trump due to the negative stereotypes related to Trump voters, so the amount of votes he could win was underestimated.

Senior Alexis Smith, who voted, said, “I’m really disappointed by it. This was my first election I could vote in and my candidates all lost.”

Trump’s win immediately caused backlash. Some expressed their unwanting of Trump being their president on Twitter with the hashtag ‘#notmypresident’. Others expressed it by participating in nationwide protest, some violent. The protest have been going on for a week and over 200 people have been arrested nationwide so far (Euan McKirdy, Susanna Capelouto and Max Blau, CNN).

On Sunday, Nov. 13, there was a protest in downtown St. Louis, organized by North graduate Basel Isa. There were an estimated 1,800 people at the protest, including Parkway North faculty and students.

“At first I thought it was pointless and maybe a little disrespectful towards the democratic process to protest the results of the election. Now I believe that protesting the hate that has been created and condoned by this elections is the best way to let President-elect Trump know that we won’t tolerate hate,” said Smith.

McDonald’s family held a protest as well. “The protest that my family threw together was relatively small. We don’t agree with the violent protests going around. But, we know that if we’re peaceful and we stand our ground, we will be heard,” said McDonald.

With electoral laws having been in place for years, many know that the protesting and rioting will not physically bring Trump out of the white house. Still, some hope that the protest will change Trump’s perspective on where the country needs to be.

“That he’ll learn to provide for everybody just as Obama did,” said McDonald.

by Ijeoma Nkenchor, Marketing Genius