When I first found out that Donald Trump had announced that he was going to be running in the 2016 Presidential Election, I laughed. I knew this wasn't the first time that Donald Trump had tried his hand in politics: he had an unsuccessful campaign in the 2000 Presidential Election. I initially assumed that there would be a similar outcome in this election, and he would be quickly weeded out in the primaries. I never viewed Donald Trump as a legitimate politician. I only viewed him as an arrogant, boastful, crass celebrity that made a point to constantly remind everyone just how ridiculously wealthy he was.
That was back in June of 2015. I never anticipated that he would even be considered as a serious candidate, let alone last this long in the election and be the front-runner for the Republican Party nomination. If I had known then what I know now, I never would have laughed because Donald Trump being a real contender for the next President of the United States is not a laughing matter.
Donald Trump is known for speaking his mind (often without any prior forethought) and for making impassioned controversial statements on a wide variety of topics.
In fact, one of his most vilely racist statements was made at the beginning of his presidential campaign. Referring to Mexican immigrants, Trump said that, "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crimes, they're rapists." He has also talked about building a wall along the border of the United States and Mexico, proposing that Mexico's government should fund this atrocious project.
His offensive and crude comments about women are some of the more disturbing things he's said. After the first Republican debate (which was moderated by Megyn Kelly) he said, "She [Megyn Kelly] had blood coming out of her wherever," thus insinuating that she was menstruating when she challenged Trump on his previous misogynistic statements about women. It's not surprising that he made yet another misogynistic comment to defend himself when he was confronted by a woman about saying misogynistic things about women.
As if that wasn't repulsive enough, Trump has also said on multiple occasions that he would date and have sex with his daughter if he wasn't her father. In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine in 2015, he was quoted saying, "Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father . . . " When he was on an episode of "The View" back in 2006, he similarly said, "If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
While Donald Trump has said a plethora of racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamaphobic, ableist, and all around abhorrent things, this one troubled me the most: "Donald Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," shortly after the tragic San Bernadino shooting.
Donald Trump declared that a travel ban on all Muslims should be initiated immediately until "our country's representatives can figure out what's going on." He didn't suggest how Muslims should be identified, but he never dismissed the prospect of using some form of special identification cards or symbols to show that they're Muslims. This offset an outcry from Muslim Americans, non-Muslim Americans and non-American Muslims alike.
I was particularly baffled and horrified as a member of the Jewish community, since these suggestions were reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's ideologies which inevitably led to the mass genocide of 6 million Jews. Even prior to concentration camps, Jews were forced to live within ghettos and wear badges with Jewish stars on them to indicate that they were Jewish.
This ideology that Donald Trump has about Muslims is scarily similar to Hitler's anti-semitic ideology. Trump received widespread criticism from both conservatives and liberals for these awful remarks, with many comparing him to Hitler.
What stunned me the most was not that he said this, but rather that he was even allowed to remain a Presidential candidate and somehow managed to barely suffer in the polls after saying this.
A few days ago, #NeverTrump trended worldwide on Twitter. People around the world with various beliefs across the political spectrum tweeted with this hashtag. Still, it's worth noting that many of these people were conservatives who don't want Trump in office as much as liberals don't.
As American citizens, we can't stand by and let this execrable man win the Republican Party nomination, let alone the Presidential election. Don't decide to vote for Donald Trump as a joke or refrain from voting altogether because "you've lost faith in humanity" after seeing so many people supporting Donald Trump. Exercise your right to vote for one of the other candidates (who are all more suitable candidates when compared to him) that you deem to the best choice for the next President of the United States and ensure that he never sets foot in the White House.
