Olivia Russo
Staff Writer
As of Nov. 6, Donald Trump has been elected as president of the U.S., winning both the electoral college and the popular vote, the latter for the first time ever.
Despite winning, he is entirely unfit for any office, let alone the Oval Office.
Trump is a convicted felon, he has been found guilty on 34 counts in relation to influencing the 2016 election by paying hush money to adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
He still has outstanding court dates about falsifying business records, interfering in the 2020 election, specifically in Georgia, and stealing classified documents from the White House.
Despite all of that, Trump was elected once again – with even more people than the last election voting for him.
There is no reason why a convicted felon and one with outstanding cases should be able to run for president.
Other convicted felons cannot get jobs, or are not even allowed to vote.
The felonies are just one portion of the main issue: Trump is being elected for policies he has not implemented in a government he has not worked in.
A lot of reasons that people have voted for Trump, a lot of the consensus being for the supposed policies that, once in office, Trump will enact, specifically due to the economy.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has suffered, due to the natural supply and demand that comes with economic shifts.
During the pandemic the U.S. suffered an economic contraction, regarded as one of sharpest ones in history. Millions of citizens lost their jobs, and business owners had to shut down. In response, the government sent out stimulus packages to promote spending and keep the economy running, unemployment insurance payment were also extended to millions.
President Biden is currently working under the economy that former president Trump created, while he was working with the economy that former president Obama ran.
In other words, Trump benefited from the good economy under Obama, and Biden was successful in healing the economy that tanked under Trump. Biden presided over tremendous job growth and employment numbers, but also high inflation.
Many people may think that the gas prices will go down once Trump assumes power, which may be true. However, the national average of gas prices are already declining, and inflation has slowed recently.
During the Biden administration, oil production increased and outpaced not just the Trump administration, but Saudi Arabia and Russia’s oil production. On top of the new initiatives Biden put into place to shift from fossil fuels to green energy, which also outpaced the effort of the Trump administration.
No matter what price gas ends up at in the next four years, it is not the sole reason to pick a candidate.
When voting, you pick the person who represents what you believe in the most, no matter the party.
Anyone who voted for Trump is supporting much more than lower gas prices. They are supporting everything listed in Project 2025. That’s what they stand for. There is no other option. That is what they voted for.
Project 2025 is a 900-page manual that will reconstruct the entire federal government of every level and branch to support and concede with the most conservative agenda.
This project intends to remove abortion access for all, deport immigrants on a massive scale, rip rights from transgender individuals, abolish the Department of Education, and that is not even half of it.
At the end of the day, there are people we are surrounded by who are actively voting against the rights of the people they care about and the people that they spend their time with.
There is a good chance that someone you love will be greatly impacted by this.
A woman may be forced to have a baby her body cannot carry A friend may lose the opportunity to become a legal citizen. A classmate could not be allowed to marry because they are transgender, a sibling could lose their education.
These policies may not affect you, but they do affect someone you know.
Those are the policies that Trump believes. Those are what he stands for, even if he denies it until inauguration. That is his plan.
Voting for Trump means that you stood by those policies. You have to live with that decision and the anguish of the people closest to you for the next four years.
Olivia Russo is a junior journalism major and a staff writer for the Campus Times. She can be reached at olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
