As the presidential race is in full gear, people from all sides of the election in the USA feel very strongly about their candidate, and even more strongly about the candidate they oppose. This summer, I did a program at Oxford University, where I had the chance to meet people from all around the world. I thought that my study abroad trip would be a break from the heated campaign, but I was surprised to find people talked about it A LOT, and were excited to share their opinions and concerns about the election. I took this as an awesome opportunity to record opinions on one specific candidate: Donald Trump.

I did not share my opinion with them beforehand. I merely asked if they were willing to be interviewed and asked them two simple questions: What do you think about Donald Trump and what do you think a Donald Trump presidency would mean?

Compared to the other candidate in the US election race there are pros and cons, but I would be against Trump because I don’t want [him] representing the country. As a person from Mexico, he constantly patronizes my country and makes fun of my race. He doesn’t realize that without Mexico helping the US, such as us being the biggest exporter for US in car parts and making up much of his labor forces, he may not even be the big corporation that he is. He should really think about that before saying all of these things and not checking his facts. He just says whatever he wants to, and says all of these horrible and offensive things and then tries to get the Mexican votes and says, “I love Mexicans.” So it’s like, do you actually love Mexicans, because you are threatening to build a wall around Mexico? Are you trying and isolate the US even more so than it is now? It makes me very scared because I don’t know in what relations Mexico and the US will be if Trump wins the election.

-Female, Mexico

I think that Trump’s position on immigration and foreign policy sort of diminishes America’s inspiration towards the world for freedom. Should he be elected, it would definitely be a sign that the world is heading in a direction of regression, rather than development. For instance, people voting for someone that plans to build a wall around an emerging economy and threatening to ban an entire race of people and saying they are terrorists, just shows a medieval point of view. I think it would be horrible if one of the biggest and most inspirational nations that many others look to would elect someone like that as their leader.

-Female, New Zealand

I think in the American presidential race, Donald Trump should become president of America, purely because he is a change that America needs. Hilary Clinton is part of the old administration, and I think America needs a change. I feel Hilary Clinton is a hypocrite for a lot of reasons, especially because of the email scam that threatened national security. Donald Trump is a new choice and a good choice.

-Male, India

The first time I learned about Donald Trump was in history class, and the teacher showed us a whole bunch of videos about Trump talking about China. He seems really interested in China, and to me it’s like, he’s just doing this to attract people’s attention. He says a lot of things to seem “real,” but he doesn’t actually make much sense about most things, such building a wall. I’m not really into politics, but I can still see how it would have influence on everybody. I think it would be really crazy for a president to be like Donald Trump. I don’t know what America would be, and I don’t think I would be willing to be in that place if he is president.

-Female, China

I think he’s just a rich, mogul who doesn’t really know how to rule a country. And I think it would have impact on the whole world. It would bad. Very bad.

-Female, England

I think a Donald Trump presidency would be really bad because I think the position of the president of the US is probably one of the most powerful people in the world, and if they elect a leader like that, it shows to the rest of the world that you’re becoming increasingly xenophobic. The world is becoming so globalized and we need to come together, but we are kind of at a standstill because of everything going on right now. If Donald Trump gets elected, he would just continue to go in the opposite direction, in which people get separated and you start segregating society again.

-Female, India

I just actually think he’s an asshole, because he said Kaddafi was a good leader and I think that if you say that you are mentally not 100%. And because he’s a businessman and he normally says that he can just have what he wants. As a president, you can’t just always have what you want. You have to work for it. Yea, I don’t like him.

-Female, Amsterdam

I’m not very fond of the idea of a Trump presidency. I believe that his comments are racist and discriminating. I believe someone like that shouldn’t and cannot be a president.

-Female, Greece

I think Trump is a very, very bad man, but I simply don’t know what he’ll do, because everything he says is then contradicted by his other words. If he becomes president, I think the future will be bad, but we will just wait and see.

-Male, Hong Kong

He’s an asshole. I can’t even say anything else; it will be too aggressive. You guys would kill me. He’s a very, very bad person.

-Male, Thailand

I think he is the ideal picture of populism, which is really dangerous at this time. Populist viewpoints lead to extreme polarization of people. He just says all of these kind of arguments and statements, whether they are true or not, just to gain attention. I wouldn’t even say it’s his real opinion, but he’s using a dangerous instrument to gain a following. I definitely don’t think that’s a good way for politicians to act, and definitely not someone who could be in control of one of the biggest armies of the world.

-Male, Austria

He’s like a melon. I don’t like melons. Trump I don’t like. So therefore, he’s a melon. I just don’t think he’s right, at all. What are you guys doing? You guys are stupid, you Americans.

-Male, Brazil

Donald Trump, if he is to be the president of the United States, the US has too much power and it would not only affect his area but also everyone else. It has the power to control others. The fact that he wants create a wall between him and the Mexicans and block out Muslims just doesn’t make sense. So much of the world is Muslim, so you are lowering the amount of innocent people that can seek refuge in your country, and that just doesn’t make sense. He’s ruining everything.

-Female, Egypt

I don’t know. He is exaggerating very much, that most of it is just publicity and campaign. I don’t know to what extent he is actually crazy. But I would vote for him, because no way in hell are you electing Hilary. Hilary over trump, never.

-Male, El Salvador

People don’t really like him, especially the more intellectual people in Italy. I really dislike the idea of trump being president. He has multiple opinions on the same subject. For example, some times he’s for abortion, and other times he is against it. Which, doesn’t really show a really good president. He’s an emotional speaker, and not a factual speaker. It would be interesting to see, but it would be bad.

- Male, Italy

A Trump presidency is pretty scary. His policies are pretty racist. If he were in control of the US, which is such a big power, it would be bad.

- Female, Norway

In my opinion Donald Trump's success is totally based on hate and frustration of many Americans. He uses political tactics which was successful in '30 and maybe '50 but nobody believed could be successful now, he perfectly recognised what makes Americans frustrated, annoyed or insecure and uses it in his campaign. He personalised American problems and gave people someone to blame, masses want simple solution and politicians providing them with populous explanations are usually quite successful in frustrated societies. Also I think his success may stem from growing in the last time dislike of Barack Obama, people who think (incorrectly in my personal opinion) that America needs drastic changes to maintain it's position are much more likely to vote Donald Trump than Hilary who is obviously supported by Obama. Since '90 and early 2000' American has been losing its meaning in the world and people who usually don't understand and probably don't even care about complicated economic issues and world politics don't know why and Donald Trump fulfilled their desire for "knowledge" with his fierce speeches, referring to "great past" and republican values and slogans like "make America great again". Asking his prospective voters what actually is budget deficit or how big is American debt could reveal interesting information. Shortly Donald Trump is actually very intelligent and perfectly knows what simple and poorer educated Americans want to hear, no clever words just emotions.

-Female, Poland

Donald Trump’s rise to an established and substantial figure in the American political landscape is, quite candidly, terrifying. He is an isolationist, nationalist, demagogue whose virulent and hateful rhetoric only serves to further entrench socio-political divides that have developed within American society, fostering discriminatory sentiment all the while. In Canada, we have our fair share of political candidates with veiled anti-immigration and Islamophobic messages; none, however, express these concepts using the puerile, blunt, and deeply hateful lexicon that Trump employs ceaselessly. Indeed, an individual in Canada, political figure or otherwise, who made the comments Trump has made, would likely be arrested under our hate speech laws. Trump is a tangibly dangerous political figure who has the potential to inflict unimaginable harm, not only upon the American populace, but every single member of the global community. I implore all those who call the United States home to become actively involved in denouncing his message and working towards his defeat.

-Male, Canada