Well, we made it. Somehow. Through months of idiotic memes, lewd tapes, a Texan Dracula, and E-MAILS, we did it. We picked between a “billionaire orangutan” and a “power suit robot.” Now, we have our final result. Now, where did this all start?
In 2015, the political season started to emerge from the ground. Hillary announced her campaign via a YouTube video, planting seeds in the ground for her plea to millennials via digital media. Trump announced the awakening of his campaign in the Trump Tower in more of a traditional sense, where he ever-so-famously called Mexicans “criminals” and “rapists.” Hillary plotted her stereotype of a robotic-like demeanor, whereas Trump submerged himself in the first of a slew of racist, derogatory, misogynistic, and overall offensive comments, the trademark of his increasingly-controversial campaign.
Then we were blessed with the helter-skelter of the primaries. Trump lost to Ted Cruz of Texas in the Iowa Caucuses, the first event of the primary season. Then, Trump started to dominate from state-to-state, gaining support from Americans who were tired and fed up with their current political system. He decimated the competition and won the Republican nomination in May, before the primaries were even over! After the Indiana primary, his two remaining opponents dropped out and he was declared the presumptive nominee. Hillary had a bit more trouble with her primaries, having tight competition with her political outsider opponent, the junior senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Luckily, her vast number of superdelegates carried her through and she won the nomination, even receiving an endorsement from her opponent. Now, we have our two main opponents. Let’s see what happens next… which is quite a lot.
The competition continues to heat up, as the parties continue to viciously attack each other. As the months progress, the two remaining opponents continue to bash each other on terms of policy. The months go on and on. Trump continues to rally his supporters, and Hillary continues to yearn for the millennial vote, trying to gain support from undecided voters. Then, we have the tapes, coming from a vulgar 2005 Donald Trump. Here we go. Send your prayers. Confess your sins.
“Grab her by the -” I’ll stop right there, because I assume you know the rest. On October 7, 2016, some leaked tapes came out from a hot mic on an Access Hollywood Bus in 2005. In the bus, two men were discussing women and the things they could do to them since they were famous, one of them even boasting about sexual assault. Those two men were the Republican nominee Donald Trump, and an Access Hollywood television host (who has now left NBC because of these tapes) named Billy Bush (a distant relative of the 43rd POTUS, George W. Bush). This tape exploded the next day and it gashed Trump’s campaign across the chest. He lost key endorsements from several GOP officials and his misogynistic history continued to be evidenced as more and more women accused him of sexual assault. Now Trump was affected plenty by this scandal, but Hillary had some problems of her own in the final week of the election.
E-MAILS. The word that has undermined a lot of Hillary Clinton’s political career. In late-October, the FBI reopened its investigation into Hillary’s e-mails… specifically ones that were associated with everybody’s favorite sexting Congressman… Anthony Weiner. Not only is this odd for the FBI to head back into a closed case, it’s even odder that this took place a few days before the election. However, the FBI’s conclusion remained the same, and there were no new allegations.
Now we reach November 8, the day of the election of the next U.S. President. There were a lot of hot topics leading into this election, like voter fraud and the political state of several key swing states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina. As polls began to close around the country, results started to trickle in, and the electoral map started to look like a ripe, red tomato, if you catch my drift. Trump gained a stronghold in the Midwest and the South, winning more predictable states like Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and the like. Hillary gained a stronghold (for the most part) in the Northeast, winning states like our home state of New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc. She also gained support along the West Coast, winning states like Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, and California, which held a whopping 55 electoral votes.
As the night progressed, more info about various swing states came out. Hillary took important states like Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia… but Trump won about everything else. He won the pivotal state of Ohio relatively easily, but, after hours of flip-flopping between the two candidates’ standings, he also won states like North Carolina (15 electoral votes), the decisive Florida (29 electoral votes), and even Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes). States like Michigan and New Hampshire remained undecided (Hillary eventually won New Hampshire), but it became more and more evident that Trump had far more momentum than Hillary. He won normally-blue states like Wisconsin, maintained his southern stronghold, and turned the most-important swing states in his favor. After Trump won Florida and Pennsylvania, the victor was obvious. Even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote (similar to Al Gore in 2000), Donald J. Trump reached 270 electoral votes, making him the 45th President of the United States of America.
Right after Donald Trump became the president-elect, there was even more controversy plaguing his campaign as people continued to be dissatisfied with his rhetoric. Immediately after he won the presidency, there were protests across the country. These protests took place in major cities, such as Atlanta, Miami, Oakland, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Philadelphia, and even New York City. People across the country were terrified by a Trump presidency as Hillary Clinton woefully gave her concession speech, withdrawing from the race for the presidency. Trump then began to toss around ideas for his cabinet, thinking of his closest associates: Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Jeff Sessions, etc. for positions varying from Secretary of State to Defense to Attorney General.
From one of the most shocking elections of all time, emerged one of the most shocking candidates of all time: The controversial, fiery, conservative POTUS: Donald John Trump… and that, folks, is how real-estate mogul, turned reality TV star, Donald Trump, achieved the presidency.
Grover Middle School's Jagazine 