A Modern Civil War

It is common societal practice to avoid certain topics in polite conversation: money, religion, politics, and now, the name of our current president, Donald Trump. The opinions of this man and his administration are either in extreme support or strong hatred and very rarely does one come across an individual who is “neutral” about the matter. Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, has exemplified the most controversial presidency in American history and has heightened the divide between Americans in support of him and against him due to his celebrity reputation, several campaign scandals, cavalier communication with the public, and administration’s ongoing investigations. A nation, divided by two opposing groups, restricts its leaders from working with one another in a respectable and productive way and causes the nation’s people to be in a constant uproar. America’s government may or may not need a new leader in office, but one thing is certain, American is in dire need of unityamong political figures and citizens, regardless of who they voted for in 2016 and regardless of their political party affiliation. 

            Born into a family real estate development business, Donald Trump, had a leg-up for white-collar success. In 1971 after earning his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Donald took on the role of Presidency for his family’s company. He renamed the company to The Trump Organization and rebranded the name by pivoting from plain residential developments to worldwide projects including golf courses, grand hotels, and casinos. All of his developments display Trump’s noticeably elaborate branding through incorporating his name on every project and signature architectural styles. In addition, he bought the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants, hosted the reality television show, The Apprentice, and wrote several business-related books such as The Art of the Deal, How to Get Rich, Think Like a Billionaire, and Surviving at the Top, just to name a few. (Biography.com, 2019). His several successful business ventures earned him a net worth high of $3.7B and a spot on the Forbes 400 list for several years. (Forbes, 2019). He also experienced some unsuccessful ventures like Trump University and his attempted NFL franchise, The New Jersey Generals, which only played for three short seasons. (Biography.com, 2019).

            While Donald Trump was only known as a businessman, before ever stepping into the political realm, his reputation was still grounds for controversy. In 1973 during the hand-over period of Trump taking over the family business from his father, a complaint was filed against the company that claimed the group had discriminated against hotel guests on the basis of guests’ race. The case settled four years later and The Trump Organization was required to educate their employees about the matter and take preventative measures to ensure discrimination would not occur again at a Trump property. Trump referenced this case in his book, The Art of The Deal. (Biography.com, 2019). 

            Before filing for divorce from his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, in 1990, rumors swirled that Ivana faced domestic abuse from Trump. (BBC, 2017). According to Rolling Stone Magazine, Ivana did file for divorce from her spouse due to “cruel and unhuman treatment” and her attorneys included instances of verbal abuse from Mr. Trump. (Dickinson, 2018). Many sexual assault claims were made later on, during Trump’s 2016 campaign, but his domestic violence allegations were made public as early as the 1990s and spurred the tabloids and general public to keep his name in conversation. People Magazine quoted Trump’s comment boasting about the publicity he was receiving regarding his divorce, “It’s bigger than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton”. (Lafrance, 2018).  He continued to stay in public news during his two following marriages, both to super model women with large differences in age. Stories regarding infidelity appeared in the tabloids often during both marriages. Since the 1980s Donald Trump has been seen as a celebrity who had exemplified instances of pompous, attention seeking behavior. Wildly wealthy real estate developers and business owners are generally not of celebrity status because their personal life stays out of the public eye, however, Trump seemed to embrace his fame and continue to entertain the stories of his personal life by being extremely public about his relationships and opinions. 

            In 2015, Donald Trump announced his campaign for the 2016 election under the Republican party. During the election period, Trump’s campaign received an enormous amount of talk in the media and several scandals occurred during these months. Several women came forward claiming that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them in the past. A disturbing audio tape from Access Hollywood recorded Trump’s voice boasting about how his stardom allows him to do “anything” he wants with women, went viral and contributed greatly to American people believing Trump is a sexist. One of the largest infidelity scandals Trump faced during the 2016 election, was the allegation that Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, had sexual relations with Mr. Trump while he was married to his current wife and First Lady, Melania Trump. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney at the time, pleaded guilty to the hush payment made to Daniels in 2015 for the amount of $130,000 from Cohen’s personal funds. After pleading guilty and facing a three-year prison sentence, Cohen testified in February of 2019 before congress about the matter, as well as showed checks as evidence that he was reimbursed for the $130,000 by Trumps Personal Bank Account for the payment that Cohen originally paid to Daniels. (Bruggeman, 2019). 

            The way he spoke about Mexican and Middle Eastern immigrants also caused his administration to face backlash as the news interpreted that Trump believed all Mexican and Middle Eastern immigrants were drug dealers, rapists, and criminals because in his campaign announcement speech, he categorized these illegal citizens as a danger to the American people and focused on crimes of drug trading, kidnapping, and human trafficking. To quote, Trump said “Mexico is bringing us its worst people” and “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everyone else’s problems.” Trump tried to persuade voters that the speech did not have racist intent and even posted on social media a Cinco de Mayo appreciation picture captioned “I love Hispanics!” which also faced backlash. (Gilmer, 2018). Trump also made the claim that he is “the least racist person there is” and pointed out that Randell Pinkett, an African American, was the fourth season winner of his show, The Apprentice. He also has referred to African American people as “the blacks” or “a black”, which further sparked his racist allegations in the media. During the election, a comment he made in the 1980s calling Japanese people “japs” also fueled the negative attention. It was even interpreted that Trump was homophobic because he classified himself as a “traditionalist” and this statement caused people to infer that he does not support the LGBTQ community. (Gass). Voters during the time, were either convinced that Donald Trump was homophobic, racist, and sexist with little respect for any group besides white men, or believed that all information that came forward to the press at this time was a false ploy from the Democratic Party to sabotage President Trump. Some even believed that the Democratic party was paying women to come forward with their stories of sexual harassment. Sarah Sanders spoke out about one of the claims that President Trump unwantedly kissed Alva Johnson while she worked for the 2016 campaign by calling it “absurd on its face”. In an interview, Melania Trump confirms that she is not worried about the infidelity accusations as she is confident in her marriage because there has not been a woman to come forward with significant proof of an affair, just a story. (Hazell, 2018). Note that the viral Access Hollywood tape only supports the argument that Trump feels his wealth and fame allow him to take advantage of women, not that it allows him to cheat monogamy. 

            Private lawsuits also sparked controversy among Trump supporters and the rest of the nation. After Trump won the primary election and was now running against Hillary Clinton, Trump continuously drew attention toward Clinton’s use of a personal email server while serving as Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was facing 75 active lawsuits. (BBC, 2016). Three fraud cases were ongoing regarding Trump University as students claimed the never-realized university falsely advertised their real estate development education and students pre-paid tens of thousands of dollars to the school which was never established. Trump settled all three cases and noted publically that there was a conflict of interest because the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, is of Mexican decent and rumors about Trump’s racism toward Mexican people could have played a role in Curiel’s call. Of course, many Trump supporters agreed that Curiel was using his opinion of Trump as a presidential candidate in the lawsuit, which contributed to more media attention. Trump’s Florida golf course was also being sued for collecting membership fees while blocking admission. Simultaneously, Trump was personally being sued for sending unsolicited text messages and calling Cheryl Jacobus a “dummy” on Twitter which she reported destroyed her political career and publically humiliated her, as well as several lawsuits regarding sexual harassment allegations. (BBC. 2016). 

            Talk of Trump’s team communicating with Russia in order to sway the 2016 election with fake news stories and cyber-attacks against Clinton dominated the news. The people involved include Donald Trump, Donald Trump Junior, Trump’s ex-advisor Roger Stone, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, Trump’s computer programmer Richard Pinedo, Trump’s campaign staffer Rick Gates, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Trump’s formal lawyer Michael Cohen. FBI director James Comey was investigating the allegations and recently, Robert Mueller has been given the responsibility of the investigation. (BBC, 2019). 

            During the 2016 election, the media and country-wide protests swept the country with controversy. Trump’s political rallies were disrupted by anti-Trump protests and three instances of violence during the rallies were reported. Trump supporters showed their fury regarding the disruption all over social media and some took extraordinary measures such as posting photographs on social media of Australian actress, Samara Weaving and her bloodied bruised face, claiming it was caused by an anti-Trump supporter shaming her for expressing her political opinion.  Later, it was revealed that the instance was a hoax and the bruising was just make-up for a scene featured in her movie, Ash versus Evil Dead. (SMH, 2016.). 

            Trump continues to engage in his controversy with his very cavalier communication with the public. To clarify, he uses crude, unprofessional language in public statements on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. For each allegation or rumor that this presented against him, Trump responds back, usually with an insult to his challenger. During the campaign and during his current presidency, this issue remains and has even further fueled the divide between his supporters and anti-supporters. Not only does he make crude remarks on social media, he has reported to have stated over 9,000 false or misleading claims in public speeches and posts. Even in both of his State of the Union speeches, there was some inaccuracy, like his point that “the U.S. economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I first took office” which was proven false as the economy is growing at a 3.5% rate. (Kessler). 

            Some have wondered why does Donald Trump have the admiration and extreme support that he does? His supporters do not just seem to have a political liking to him but a love and extreme loyalty to him. Psychology Today recently identified this devotion as Authoritarian Personality Syndrome which is a state of mind that responds greatly to total obedience to a leader’s authority. Social Dominance Orientation also can explain this phenomenon and is defined as being drawn to a social hierarchy of groups especially in cases where a high-power group has dominance over a lower-power group. (Azarian, 2017). Others have wondered why are people so quick to dislike Trump. Psychology Today also published an article that explains the anxiety associated with having a heterosexual, Christian, white-male in office and the fear of inequality that citizens face when only having white men as major political leaders. The article also explains why Trump’s personal financial wealth greatly contributes to the American people being hesitant to accept him as an advocate for the American people and middle/lower class. (Henriques).

            As the 45^thpresident of the United States, the controversy of Donald Trump has divided the nation. Many have protested by wearing shirts, holding signs, and even tagging on public property with the words “Not my president” indicating that regardless of Trump’s win in 2016, they do not accept him as a leader due to their extreme opinion of him and his political practices. People even acknowledged the national holiday, president’s day, as “Not My Presidents Day” and protests were held in several cities among the United States even some in the UK. Comedian Kathy Griffin showed her fury about the president elect by posting a photograph of her holding a bloodied prop of Trump’s head as an expression of her disapproval and disliking for the current president. Kathy Griffin was investigated for insinuating assassination of the president and publically apologized for the very graphic and violent post. (Gstalter, 2018). Other celebrities have been vocal about their disrespect for President Donald Trump. Model Chrissy Teigan has tweeted about her pride for her hatred of our president and has boasted that she has been a “Trump-hater” for over 7 years. Her husband, John Legend, has responded to Tweets of Donald Trump Jr. calling his father racist and publically stating “Trump is an embarrassment to the country”. (Bazaar, 2017). There have been several reports of physical assaults of Trump supporters who are wearing apparel with the “Make America Great Again” slogan. GQ magazine even published an article claiming that the Make America Great Again hat is an object of hate speech because the hats have been worn at white supremacist rallies and have been named as “the new white hood” suggesting that the bright red hats are just as hateful as KKK representation. (Wolf, 2019). Several Trump supporters have been interviewed and explained that they are hesitant to express their political affiliation or engage in political conversation because of the hatred Trump supporters have faced. They do not feel embarrassed or ashamed of their support for the president but are afraid to be deemed a racist or sexist due to the controversial subject. (USA Today). 

            Currently, 16 states are filing federal lawsuits against President Trumps for his executive order to shut down the government for a record-breaking amount of time. The reason for the shutdown, being to take money from other programs to fund the Southern border wall, is being classified unconstitutional since the constitution gives Congress the responsibly of fund control not the Executive branch. (New York Times, 2019). States suing the federal government and other states arguing against it clearly exemplifies the divide the U.S. is facing among political leaders. 

            When examining nations with corrupt government systems, such as Russia, divisionamong the nation’s people and national leaders is a common thread that leads to severe challenges in the government. For example, top-down corruption, entails that a nation’s elite are completely dependent on their relationship with the president for their riches- the country is divided between extremely rich and extremely poor. Russia has been corrupt for decades now and through this habit it has practiced for so many years, corruption is essential for its government system and the country does not know how to engage in politics without it. (Foreign Policy Research Institute).

            Unity is the key principle that has built America as a nation and the characteristic that the country holds the most pride in. Our founding fathers warned us that a nation is only successful if it has strong unity among its people. The name, United States of America, says it all but currently the political divide is so great that the future of the U.S. could be compromised. Even if a new leader is elected president in 2020, the habit that America has made of rejecting political leaders even after they are sworn into office, will hinder the progress of the nation in every aspect. Furthermore, the way other political leaders have shown disrespect and rebellion against Trump will set the tone for how American politicians work together and will be detrimental to the system if not mitigated immediately. With a national government being so competitive against opposing sides within the same country, political corruption is bound to happen as leaders will become more and more uninspired to govern for their nation’s people and their power will only be useful for personal gain. In the political system, there are several moving parts that must work together: the president, the appointed political leaders, and the people. As of right now, all three are on opposite ends of the spectrum and do not successfully accept one another therefore, progress cannot be made. During an election, it is American pride to show political expression through engagement like speech or protest in good faith, however, the outcome of the election must be accepted and respected. As America looks forward to the new 2020 president elect, it is imperative that citizens do not only unify as people of political parties but as American people, all sharing the same pride for their great country. 

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