President Donald Trump is one of the most polarizing people in politics. People either love him or hate him, and he is clearly driving the motivation for people to go to the polls this year. Whether it’s to keep him or vote him out.
President Trump
In 2016 at WCU, people proudly wore their MAGA hats, Trump flags, t-shits and other merchandise to show their support for Trump. However, this year showing support for Trump has been much less popular, and according to one student, who will be voting for the first time in this election, showing support for Trump is something that a lot of his supporters would rather not do. This student has asked to remain anonymous.
“In pop culture today, it’s not really cool to be a Trump supporter. Someone even put on their story that they would un-add anyone who is a Trump supporter,” said the same student.
This student says that while they agree with what Trump does they do not want to face losing friendships over their views.
Additionally, out of the eight Trump supporters that WCJ spoke with, nearly all of them expressed that they didn’t want other people to know that they are voting for him.
Josie Hair, an Honors College student at WCU who supports Trump, was willing to tell WCJ why she feels that Trump is her best option in this election. Hair is a Sophomore and is taking ballet classes at WCU. She also is active at her local church.
“If I just accepted everything the media says about Trump without looking into what he actually says and does, I would think he was evil as they make him seem and would not be comfortable voting for him,” said Hair in an instant message. “But, when I research things for myself, I find out that typically what he does is not bad and is actually good.”
Hair cited Trump’s pandemic response and his response to the death of George Floyd as some of her reasons for voting for Trump.
“He limited international travel at the very start of the pandemic to greatly slow the spread and outbreaks of coronavirus, helped the economy recover better than it should’ve after the COVID lockdown, he does not take his presidential paycheck (I’m sure he doesn’t need it, but he could take the money anyway), he demanded justice for George Floyd and condemned the cops’ actions. But, he also took responsibility and acted to stop the violence that broke out in not all but sadly many of the protests, and [he] defended a black officer and others killed or injured in the protests.”
To see how Trump handled to protests check out these links:
The media’s representation of Trump also is a primary factor for Hair’s support of the president. For example, Trump has largely been criticized for his response to the pandemic and racial justice in general, during the first debate he also failed to condemn white supremacist groups. However, Hair, as many other supporters of Trump, feel that the media are responsible for this image of him.
“Trump has kept to more limited government; [he is] defending our liberty and rights by sticking to the government’s true role to protect life, liberty, and property and NOT to control our lives,” said Hair. “[He] stands up against the media as they lie and largely misrepresent him with who he really is and what he stands for.”
Trump has been bashed for repeated false and misleading claims. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale has estimated that he has made over 20,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency. According to Hair, the Biden campaign’s lying is a large reason that she cannot support them.
“[I] have seen how both Biden and Kamala lie even about things that are very obviously false if just looked into,” said Hair.
Additionally, Hair believes that Trump will be able to get the economy, that has been hit hard after the pandemic, back on track.
“I believe as a very successful business owner he knows what to do to help the economy continue to recover, allowing people to continue working to make an income if they think that’s best or to decide to lockdown themselves if they decide that’s the safest choice amid the pandemic,” said Hair.
Something that every person can agree on from either side of the political spectrum is that 2020 has been an unprecedented year that will require strong leadership to guide the country back normalcy.
Election day is tomorrow, and WCJ will provide up to date reports on the progress of the elections.
This story was written as a part of the 2020 Election Coverage class.
