Originally written in 2016 for a political journalism college course
Even if you don't quite know who Donald J. Trump is, you know who he is. He's the entrepreneur that built his empire from the ground up. He's the guy who screamed "you're fired!" on our televisions. He's the businessman who took residential real estate, and turned it into million (even billion) dollar hotels, golf courses, and skyscrapers. He's the man who published multiple books on how to become a success. It's hard to argue that someone like Trump takes the American dream and blows it out of the water. His hard work (and inevitable good luck) has truly made him one of America’s most successful businessmen.
But, how does all of this relate to politics?
That is the main question on everyone’s mind. Yes, Trump is undeniably a huge success. To deny that would be ignorant. But is he fit to run an entire country? That is yet to be determined. In Trump’s mind, running a corporation is no different than running the United States. However, that seems to be a little unrealistic. Running an entire group of democratic people, with different voices and opinions, is a lot more work than dominating at the top of a business. In order to get to know Trump a little more, I’ve looked in on his official stances on policies that are important to Americans right now.
The right to bear arms is an amendment that is extremely controversial right now. According to DonaldJTrump.com, “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon. Period.” The Trump administration is looking to keep those with guns under control. He proposes a crack down on those who do not abide by gun laws and hopes to fix the mental health system. He also hopes to have more strict background check guidelines.
When I first began reading Trump’s policy on the second amendment, I thought it was excessively black and white. The way he puts his foot down saying gun owners rights shall not be infringed upon, period, was a little outdated for me. However, once you read down to the specifics, his ideas are not actually outdated at all. I am a huge advocate of fixing our mental health system. Many crimes that happen every day are because of those who are mentally unstable and all America does is throw them in jail for a couple months then put them back on the street.
Immigration laws are also a big issue that the U.S. has been dealing with. Hundreds of illegal Mexican immigrants cross the southern border each day. This leads to millions of arrests each year, due to alien immigration laws and violent crimes. Trump’s stance on illegal immigrants is no nonsense. He wants to build a wall around our Southern border and insists Mexico pay the bill. But how does one force a country to build something they don’t want to build? Trump has declared that until they do, he will increase all visa, port entry, and border crossing fees, making it very hard for any cross over between Mexico and the U.S. until Mexico agrees to foot the bill.
Trump’s stance on illegal aliens is extremely harsh. He has truly planned a no mercy attack. One of his policies will be to end birthright citizenship. While I can understand that we don’t want to encourage dangerous illegal immigrants, it’s hard to be this harsh to the regular struggling family whose lives were in danger at their home country. Other countries have always looked to us as a place of comfort and support. There must be another way to control the illegal immigrant population, while still being the democratic and fair country that was built on immigration.
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