The holiday season and the thrill of the New Year are now behind us. It is officially 2025, and the New Year also means that we now have a new president in office. People feel many different emotions regarding Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the United States, and I personally am at a loss. On the totem pole of Trump and his followers, “Which category of people’s lives will I make harder,” I rank relatively high both as a woman and as a person of color. From my perspective, I see that a lot of others, especially those from minority groups, feel the same way.
Trump becoming president for the second time almost feels unreal because when I think of the role of the President of the United States, I think of someone of strong character who is representative of the people, and even if they cannot directly relate, they are empathetic and educated enough to understand their constituents. Trump’s character does not embody this at all and is actually far from it. Especially with regard to women, he does not have the best history. For example, the 2005 recording leaked of Trump stating “grab ’em by the p*ssy” is a very misogynistic statement that eludes to sexual assault. I cannot fathom how it is acceptable for someone to become the President of this country after having said and continuing to say such vulgar and hateful rhetoric about half the population. Along with this, it hurts me as a woman to know that there were several allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and unwanted touch against this man, and yet he is our President. I cannot imagine what any of those victims feel knowing that this is the person who won the popular vote in addition to the electoral college.
Moving past Trump’s background and into Trump’s policies, he has already gotten started on undoing a lot. For example, Trump has rolled back on several measures, making reproductive healthcare such as abortions restricted. Ever since the landmark case Roe v. Wade was overturned, many fear that their ability to safely access reproductive healthcare will be jeopardized. If he came after abortion, there is no doubt that he will come after many other provisions and rights that our ancestors fought for not that long ago. On that note, one of Trump’s first acts after returning to office was to issue an executive order defining that there are only two sexes. This effectively erases the recognition of the transgender community and has severe effects on their rights, safety, and well-being.
My only question on all this is: why? Why are these the top priorities of the new administration? America preaches freedom, and with freedom should come the ability to make decisions on your own accord. I fail to understand why such matters are even focused on by any governmental authority. As someone who reads the news regularly and has my own grievances about the problems in our society, I’m genuinely curious as to why bigger issues aren’t addressed. Issues such as the extremeness of natural disasters, such as the fires in California, the high cost of living, and the normality of gun violence are all things that I believe should be addressed with the utmost priority. The problem is that they are not.
Going forward, however, I encourage everyone to stay strong and work together. There are a lot of us and only so many of them, and if we put them in power, we have the ability to put them out of power. In the meantime, we should stick together and raise our voices as much as possible. Even if it means doing small things such as staying educated on the happenings of our world. Being a woman has always been hard, and while we are insanely lucky to have all the freedoms we have now, let’s not forget the work done by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers to get us here. And let’s protect these rights for our future generations to come.
