2016 was a rough year. It’s being casually hailed as one of the worst years in history, and we still have a couple of weeks left to endure. It began with the multiple deaths of beloved celebrities, such as Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Prince. It then moved on to one of the most shocking pieces of news of the year where Britain voted to leave the European Union.
As if we hadn’t endured enough, we’ve reached possibly the worst event to come from 2016. Donald Trump has been elected as the 45th President of the United States of America.
For the last year and a half, we’ve been bombarded with constant news coming from the presidential election. From the discovery of the classified e-mails that Hillary Clinton had been sending to the State Department unofficially during her tenure as Secretary of State, to Donald Trump being outed as a ‘pussy grabber’ and talking inappropriately about his own daughter, to when Republican candidate, Ted Cruz was crazily suspected of being the infamous Zodiac Killer. By the time voting for the election came on the 8th of November, many people were sick and tired of hearing about the Presidential candidates. Although what came next made those of us left jaded eating our words.
As soon as Donald Trump was announced as the next President of the United States, the world was shaken. Some rejoiced and celebrated, while others researched on how to emigrate to Canada. The divide between the Democrats and the Republicans was like nothing anyone had seen before. Trump’s views were problematic to a lot, but deemed as ‘honesty’ by others.
We’ve seen throughout this whole election that Trump had been planning to change things dramatically if he were to become President. He promised he would build a large wall to keep out Mexicans in America whom he saw as rapists and criminals, and to have Mexico pay for it. He promised he would abolish the successful Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) and replace it with something “terrific” that is “so much better, so much better, so much better”. He also promised to defund Planned Parenthood, a nationwide clinic that helps thousands of women in tough situations every day.
There are so many more promises that Trump had announced to the general public, and plenty more that are completely insane. Yet, when it was announced that he had actually won the election, a lot of these promises seemed to have been broken.
In a video where Trump outlined what his actions will be for the first 100 days of his Presidency, he talked about proposals related to immigration, trade deals and defence policy, having the Department of Labour investigate federal worker visas and imposing broad new bans on lobbying by government employees. But there were a few topics that Trump had failed to mention. Trump did not talk about his biggest campaign promises. He did not talk about placing new restrictions on immigration from some majority Muslim countries. He did not talk about repealing Obamacare. He didn’t even talk about the infamous Mexican-American wall.
Many people noticed how quickly he’s changed his tune about his extravagant promises and have started calling him out on it. Were his barbaric promises just a con to draw in voters? Does he even approve of what he’s been planning to do? Trump has repeatedly proven how rash a person he is, could it be that now that he’s actually been granted Presidency, he’s retreating like a dog with its tail between its legs, or have his outrageous remarks been a cover for his much more sinister intentions?
The last year has been rough on everyone, and with Trump’s inauguration being the first major event of 2017, it looks as if next year won’t be any better. Although Trump might change his attitude towards some of his worrying promises, let us never, ever forget, that Trump is sexually attracted to his own daughter.
Katrina Gaynor