According to a CNN Delegate count run on Thursday, May 26, Donald Trump has reached the threshold of 1,237 delegates needed to receive the GOP presidential nomination. While Trump will not formally accept the party's nomination until the delegates cast their votes on the convention floor in July, crossing the threshold effectively puts to rest any remaining suspense about the possibility of a messy and contested convention. This nomination, however, really comes as no surprise as the 17 candidates have slowly dwindled down to one remaining candidate, Trump. However, this doesn't mean everyone is happy about it. Trump is up against historically high unfavorability ratings, and faces immense challenges as he looks to broaden his appeal and base heading into November. The primaries revealed his weaknesses with constituencies like women and minorities. He also fails to garner support from his own party, with House Speaker Paul Ryan still refusing to give his endorsement to Trump; many major party donors and financiers also still remain opposed to his bid.
Trump is one of the most controversial nominees in recent years. Having run and quickly dropped during the 2012 election race, at first he seemed like yet another candidate added to the mess of 2016, one that would never come to fruition. However, for many reasons I cannot see, he has somehow come out of this as the sole remaining candidate, gathering a large amount of support from constituents. Trump has built his campaign on hateful prejudices and incorrect assumptions.
Many who support Trump exonerate the fact that he has built a successful empire, hoping that he can somehow "make the economy great again." However, his proposed economic policies, including an expensive immigration reform (for what?) tax cuts for the rich, a promise without any proposed plan to cut spending, and a restructuring of trade agreements, could have very negative effects for the economy overall.
His foreign policy plans are more vague, with him stating simply that "My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security first." It is hard to believe that a man with such a temper, one that is so filled with prejudices and delusions, one that refuses to believe that he is anything but the center of the universe, could negotiate relations with other countries. Trump seeks nothing less than ending the U.S.-led liberal order and freeing America from its international commitments.
I am embarrassed to live in a country in which we have taken Trump seriously as a candidate and allowed him to progress all the way to the presidential election. I am confused as to why America is so reluctant to accept a changing world that they would put someone up that resembles a 19th century dictator. To me it seems like Americans are so eager to put themselves at the center of everything that they have found an irrational man to place this on.
For everyone in California, please remember to vote in the primaries. And when the time comes in November, we all have a responsibility to vote. Young voters consistently pull the lowest numbers at the polls, and it is clear that it is time for a change.
