The scariest thing about the Trump Presidency is not that Trump has pledged to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep the “bad hombres” out.  It is not that he has threatened to ban Muslims from entering the country based upon an entirely false and cruel stereotype.  It is not even that Trump has alluded to sexually harassing women and been accused on several occasions of sexual harassment.  The most terrifying consequence of Trump becoming President is that he serves as a mandate to all racist and homophobic people in America, allowing them to believe that it is okay to judge and harass fellow Americans for their religion, sexual orientation and race.

The damage does not stop at Trump, as the candidates for his cabinet have histories of being ultra conservative.  For example, the new attorney general Jeff Sessions has publicly joked that the Ku Klux Klan, a group that has terrorized minorities for over a century, “might be O.K.”  To joke about something as violent and hateful as the KKK sends the message to Americans that it is okay to voice and act upon a racist and homophobic way of thinking. Another contender for Trump’s cabinet Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York, responded when approached about his decision to heighten security in only black neighborhoods in New York, “The white police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other 70 to 75 percent of the time.”

He has also said that the Black Lives Matter movement is “inherently racist.” This kind of message that is being translated to the general public has had its effects already being seen. For example, the week after the election a Muslim student at Wilcox was walking to class when a group of boys allegedly threw a paper airplane and, according to witnesses, called out a racist and discriminating slur. This is the type of racist thinking that, before Trump was president, remained unspoken inside a person’s head. Unfortunately, now that Trump is president, people like those boys feel entitled to act on their misinformed opinions.

Additionally, in Trump’s twenty page plan for defeating ISIS, he fails to mention how he will actually accomplish this goal. He only explains that ISIS is a product of Hillary Clinton and Obama, avoiding the topic in question entirely. Trump’s only strategy to defeat ISIS is to work with America’s “friends in the Middle East in the fight against ISIS” as stated on his official website.

Regarding immigration Trump says, “Only those who we expect to flourish in our country…should be issued visas.” While this is not as terrible an idea as banning refugees altogether, there is almost no way to screen thousands of refugees effectively to determine if they meet Trump’s idealistic standards.

Another important issue Trump has addressed is international trade.  As president Trump plans to renegotiate NAFTA, a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to reduce trading expenses and expand business investments, the agreement is at risk of falling apart entirely if things do not go his way. Renegotiate in itself is a far-reaching term, as Trump has not specified which parts of NAFTA he intends to “renegotiate.”

However, if Trump does not go to irrational extremes, this policy has the potential to be beneficial for America.  Recently, China raised its currency to approximately match the dollar.

With this in mind, Trump could be planning to put restrictions in place to keep it there.  Mild changes such as these that Trump may plan to make might not be so bad.  In an interview with the New York Times, trade lawyer Scott Lincicome says, “There would be pushback, but you’d be working within the relevant legal frameworks and using existing institutions as they were intended. Everybody will talk about it, but it won’t change the macroeconomic outlook.”

Finally, major adjustments Trump has discussed also include health care.  Trump plans to repeal Obamacare immediately. This might not be a bad idea if he had something to replace it with. According to Trump, “We will work with Congress to make sure we have a series of reforms ready for implementation.” It is clear, however, that he does not have his prospective reforms ready while his term starts in only two months.

Trump was elected as a result of many Americans feeling that their needs were not being met by previous standards. In their eyes, the only way out was to shake things up in Washington D.C.

Unfortunately, they elected Trump as their proclamation to the government. The problem is, Trump only talks big about the results he wants but he has no definite plan to get there.

How will he renegotiate NAFTA? What reforms is he going to replace Obamacare with? What is he going to do with our “friends in the middle east” to defeat ISIS?  How much longer will minorities have to suffer? Only time will tell.

With this election, I have heard many opinions in the media and from higher ups explaining how Trump was definitely not going to win. The statistics showed that Trump was just a character and never a serious candidate. When Trump won, I thought America would come to its senses. Nonetheless I have come to the conclusion that life is continuous and nothing lasts forever. I am not afraid anymore. Our nation will persevere and, together, we will endure this oncoming political cataclysm with vigilance.