When the election results came in, NKU student Christian Miller said he was in awe that Trump claimed victory.
“It was inspiring almost, because you have someone who’s never been involved in politics, never been in the military, become president,” Miller said. “I think it hones back in on the fact that the presidency and elected offices across this country, they’re not for people who have built a life around politics, they’re for genuinely everyone and anyone.”
The junior political science and biology major thinks the fact that Trump has never previously held office contributed to his win.
“People are fed up with the system we have today,” Miller said. “They [politicians] get so tied up in how much money they’re going to make if they vote a certain way that they don’t care what the people have to say, and they don’t care what we have to offer.
“His [Trump’s] slogan is, ‘Drain the swamp,’ which is essentially meaning: Take out all the garbage in Washington, D.C., you’re there to represent the people.”
Nick Montag, senior electronic media and broadcasting major, also offered his perspective on Trump having not previously held office.
“We haven’t really had a politician that has come from the background that he does. It could be either really awesome or it could be horrible. We don’t know yet,” Montag said.
While Montag doesn’t know what to expect from Trump’s presidency, he said it is only fair to treat Trump with the same fairness as any other president.
“When he screws up, that’s when you attack him. You are all right to do that,” Montag said. “But I think everyone should treat every president that’s ever been elected innocent until proven guilty. Give him a chance.”
Trey Underwood, freshman and marketing major, also said he wants Trump to succeed, despite the fact that he doesn’t support Trump.
“I don’t want failure, because if he fails, we fail as a country. I want him to do a good job. He was elected by the people,” Underwood said.
Underwood said his heart dropped when he found out the results of the election. He said the next day was hard, but now he is much better about it.
“God did not want the sun to shine, and he did not want it to be warm outside,” Underwood said. “For most of that day, it was gloomy, it was sad. The campus was just not the same.
“You would never in a million years have thought that America would have slated to that level, to where you elect a man who ran his campaign based off hatred, racism, homophobia, sexual assault, offense towards women.”
Underwood said that he felt as though the Democratic and Republican candidates were okay, but that they didn’t have his best interests at heart as a minority.
“There are a lot of issues going on within minority communities all across the country and there’s nothing that these candidates actually said they’d solve,” Underwood said. “It was more, ‘We’re going to beat around the bush, we’re going to talk about racism, we’re going to talk about inclusiveness, we’re going to talk about police brutality, and we’re going to leave it at that.’”
Underwood said he and some of his friends hosted an unofficial, “Let’s Talk About It,” the day after the election to discuss “white privilege [and] the things that have occurred since Trump started running.”
“You can hear how we feel, we can hear how you feel. We can hear how Latinos feel, we can hear how the LGBTQ+ community feels. We can all be one. It shouldn’t end because he’s president,” Underwood said. “It’s the best thing that could’ve happened to us, because it unified us.”
Freshman anthropology major Briana Lee said Trump’s victory is a positive due to the opportunity for unification it creates.
“I personally believe this is one the greatest things that could happen to America right now,” Lee said. “It forces people to see what people have been saying was there for the longest time. It forces people to deal with the elephant in the room.”
For this reason, Lee says she does not want to see Trump fail as a president.
“If you take away the reason that we have for coming together, America is going to get pushed back into this place of being comfortable with what we were dealing with,” Lee said. “All these marginalized communities are just dealing with hatred, and nobody’s saying anything about it. And now that everybody is being affected, everybody’s forced to say something about it.”
Montag also discussed people’s reactions, specifically on social media, since the news came out that Trump had won.
“I think you’re allowed to put whatever you want as your status, tweet whatever you want, that’s fine, upset as you are. What I don’t agree with is people fighting each other. And this is on both sides,” Montag said. “An opinion is an opinion. Everyone is allowed to have that. But attacking people for saying they have an opposite opinion is stupid.”
Miller also talked about the backlash he has received for voting for Trump.
“I got told you know, how could I want to elect somebody so intolerant, a misogynist, a sexist, a racist. These same people are political scientists. People who understand how the media can twist things,” Miller said. “There’s a certain point where you have to step back. You can’t be so intolerant when you’re preaching not to be intolerant.”
Miller said that he also hopes Trump’s presidency brings unity.
“A lot of people laugh at me when I say that because they would like to believe his campaign was run on divides, but I would like to agree otherwise,” Miller said.
Miller said he respects those who voted for different candidates, and he doesn’t believe any votes were wasted.
“I feel like when people are just taking part in the process of voting, that is enough,” Miller said. “When it comes down to it, no one votes incorrectly. You vote for what you believe in.”
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