by Meghan Mitchell '23 on June 11, 2023
Opinion Staff
Opinion
Donald Trump has been a controversial figure ever since he first announced his intent to run for president in the summer of 2015. He then won the election in the fall of 2016, to the horror of many. While he has his supporters, he also has many people who detest his very being and who may be in danger if he wins the office again, as he plans to run once more in the 2024 election despite the multitude of reasons why he should not be allowed to.
While some say he shouldn’t be allowed to run because he’s a terrible person, moral character is subjective and therefore not a factor in one’s eligibility to run for office. What is a factor, however, is one’s criminal record. If someone is convicted of a felony they are barred for running for office. As of now Trump has only been indicted, meaning he’s been accused of falsifying business documents. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges and at the time of writing this, the trial is at a standstill. Until that conviction is made, if it even is, he is not barred from running for office. That being said, people should still not vote for him. On Jan. 6, 2021, following Joe Biden’s win of the 2020 election, the Capitol building was attacked by Trump’s supporters. Their intent was to harm and even kill some of the politicians inside, most notably Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. Luckily, their plan failed, but many of the officers who stood guard at the Capitol were either harmed, killed, or so traumatized by the event they later took their own life. People accused Trump of inciting the attack; however, he was later acquitted of these charges. Regardless of whether he’s guilty or not, there is evidence of him gleefully watching as his supporters stormed the capital and it has been reported that people had to practically beg him to record a video and attempt to quell his angry mob. The speech that he gave before the rioters attacked claimed that the election was rigged, stolen by the radical left and fake news, saying:
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
Trump said many other things in this speech that could be seen as inciting violence, including mocking other politicians, saying that Mike Pence has betrayed him, and calling his supporters to action saying they needed, “to take back our country.” Despite this acquittal to many Americans, myself included, him being a catalyst for the violence that occurred that day was an act of treason against the very same country that he claims he is trying to liberate. Do we really want a traitor to be in charge of one of the most powerful countries in the world?
Furthermore, if Trump gets into office again, it could be detrimental to some of the country’s most vulnerable populations, specifically minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. In the past year many laws have been implemented attacking queer or trans/non-gender conforming individuals. Some of these laws include the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, a bill passed in Alabama that prevents transgender youths from receiving gender affirming care, and another Alabama bill that forces transgender individuals to use the bathroom that matches the gender they were assigned at birth. While Trump himself did not pass these laws, he is anti-LGBTQ+ despite what some may want you to believe. An article written in Them.Us lists just eight of the most egregious attacks Trump has committed on the LGBTQ+ community, from not allowing trans individuals to serve in the military to blocking job protection laws for queer people. In addition, it is hard to deny that Trump is a racist. From referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” to not allowing Syrian refugees in the country, his rhetoric has time and time again entices violence against groups who do not have white skin. NBC news reports that anti-Asian hate crimes had risen 339 percent nationwide last year alone. While you could argue this has nothing to do with Trump, him calling the virus the “Chinese virus” definitely did not help. I could go on listing many other reasons why Trump shouldn’t run and why Americans shouldn’t vote for him but at the end of the day, the decision is left to the voters. If they really want someone filled with so much hate as their leader, well, you can’t say I didn’t warn them.