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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UC Riverside chapter.

Donald Trump ran for president back in 2016 for the very first time. I remember being in my theatre class (or drama class) back in ninth grade and my teacher was like “man this is such a joke” and laughing about it because, at the time, none of us thought it would actually happen. The day of the 2016 election had a disappointing outcome for a lot of people. For those of us who were not in favor of Trump, we were scared of what would happen during his presidency. Would he actually Make America Great Again (MAGA) or make it the laughing stock of the world?

trump stage
Photo by Donald Teel from Unsplash
In reality, throughout the last four years (and especially during 2020,) he has managed to divide this country up even more. He has stereotyped many races and ethnic groups which leads many from those groups to not support him since he is offending them by the way he acts or talks of them. For example,he has been very dehumanizing about immigrants, especially those from Mexico. In announcing his presidential campaign, he even accused immigrants from Mexico of bringing crime to the U.S.

Furthermore, he has continued to divide the country based on one’s race and this was emphasized throughout the Black Lives Matter Protests as well as the riots that happened on January 6th by a pro-Trump mob. Both situations were handled very differently and both were also handled wrong.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Major protests sparked back in May of 2020 after the death of George Floyd which led the Black Lives Matter to organize protests around the world in awareness of the police brutality that led to Floyd’s death. These protests were about justice, yet at the time many called them riots, and even though the point was to end police brutality, it led to more because of President Trump’s comments on Twitter claiming protestors to be thugs and trying to incite violence.

This same attitude though did not continue when pro-Trump supporters caused riots and stormed the U.S Capitol. Rather than actually calling out rioters for their actions, all he did was say that they must remain peaceful; he did not call them thugs nor say anything of the violence they caused within the Capitol. These rioters somehow managed to get through four levels of security and even shot a woman, and they still were not met with the same measures that the protest of Black Lives Matter did.

black lives matter protests
Photo by Clay Banks from Unsplash
This leads to the question of whether the U.S will be able to unite after his presidency ends. At the moment, the country is pretty much in shambles from everything going on. These last few weeks of his presidency have shown that in reality, he did not make America great again, but tore apart the American people.

Ashleen was a UCR Political Science and Philosophy major. She graduated from UCR back in Spring 2022. When she was not writing articles for HCUCR, she was usually spending time with friends by going out to eat yummy foods or watching shows at home. She hopes you enjoyed reading her articles!
20 year old creative writing major with a love for skincare, representation, and art. When not laying down and watching cartoons, I can be found working on my novel or browsing through baby name forums.