Throughout his presidential campaign, President Donald Trump was marketed as a political outsider who could really shake things up in Washington, D.C. He was the one candidate who “spoke his mind,” even if it was xenophobic or sexist. He wasn’t held to the moral standards of other politicians or of people in general. His supporters argued he would grow out of his childish and divisive ways by now. However, as we have seen in his nine months in office, Trump hasn’t changed and will never stop marginalizing others.
Even before he won the election, Trump was a firm advocate of the birther movement against former President Barack Obama, claiming on Twitter that “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” Trump wanted to slander Obama because he is black. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a white politician’s birthplace questioned.
On top of that, we cannot forget the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about sexual assault. He acts as if women are his property, to be used only for his sexual gratification. Prominent GOP members have responded by saying it was just “locker-room talk.” There is not a single location where such talk is acceptable. Normalizing such barbaric behavior sets precedent for further reprehensible behavior.
Now let’s take a look at his actual presidency to see if he has tempered his divisive rhetoric, as his supporters believed he would.
Well, he blamed “many sides” for the Charlottesville conflict without explicitly condemning the “alt-right” white supremacists. Extreme pressure from inside and outside the White House was needed before he called out the bigots. He should not have been given a 48-hour grace period to denounce hatred and racism. When the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando occurred during Obama’s tenure, no one had to remind him to speak out. Hate groups are emboldened because our president says they were only half the problem in Charlottesville.
On June 29, Trump tweeted, “… Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago … she was bleeding badly from a face-lift.” Although reprimanded from the left and right for these sexist insults, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, defended the president, explaining “[The American people] knew what they were getting when they voted for Donald Trump, and he won overwhelmingly.”
Sanders is somewhat right; U.S. voters did know what they were getting — a man with the temperament of a bigoted seventh-grade bully. Even though he showed his true colors throughout the campaign trail, he still won the presidency.
Trump hasn’t changed and will never change. There were never any signs throughout his life or his campaign that he would transform his belligerent personality. His bigoted rhetoric has always been around — his supporters must have chosen not to see it.
Trump has risen to power alongside a complicit Republican Congress. To keep him in check, we must vote his supporters out of office. We, as millennial voters, have the power to get his enablers out of Washington D.C.
For the next three years, he is the face of the United States. However, the American people will always be its voice. What makes our nation great is our ability to admit our faults, no matter how long it takes.
Nicholas Walker is a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering.