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Thomas Francis

ENC 2135

Professor Gilchrist

February 26th 2017

An Unforgettable Election

The events leading up to the outcome of the presidential election were very controversial

for both candidates. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went through lots of problems

throughout their presidential run. One controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton was when she

was investigated for sending work related material that is supposed to be very, very private from

her personal, private email. All political figures are supposed to send work related emails

through a private, government database. Her privately-controlled email address, first revealed

by the New York Times, is an issue because she used it for all of her work-related

correspondence. Under federal law, emails sent and received by officials are supposed to be

archived so that oversight committees, historians and the press can examine them Clinton is

undoubtedly keen to get this whole episode behind her, but until the messages are released, the

criticism surrounding her actions and the content of the emails is unlikely to subside.

(Summers). This controversy Hillary Clinton experienced definitely had many people in the

U.S. change their views about her and negatively affected her number of voters. The other

candidate, Donald Trump, definitely had some controversies of his own. These problems were

definitely part of the reason many people dislike Trump. Donald Trump is an active person on

Twitter and definitely likes to voice his opinion on things. Many people are always upset with

some of his tweets. One of these tweets that sparked a controversy was based upon Trump

talking about nuclear capabilities. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted in December that the
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United States "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability" and later told a

television host that he would "outmatch" and "outlast" other potential competitors in a nuclear

arms race. The comments mostly prompted condemnation and concern in the United States and

around the world. Trump tweeted on the morning of Dec. 22 that an expansion would be required

"until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." (Reif). This tweet pissed

many people off because they do not want to already be thinking about nuclear bombs and the

making of more. It upset people greatly. Trump has also been ridiculed for being harsh to

different ethnicities which is against religious belief. Yet Donald Trump has put noticeably

little effort into branding himself as a religious candidate, even incurring condemnations of his

un-Christian language and policy positions from faith leaders. In particular, his harsh,

unwelcoming stance on Mexicans and Muslims has been commonly viewed as contrary to the

spirit of the gospel. (Jung, Paragraph 1). Trump is viewed as by some as an anti-religious

candidate because of the things he says and does. People think because he is so blunt about

people that it means he has no religion or doesnt praise anyone. Going off these things, people

greatly criticize Trumps campaign because he wants to build a wall on the 2,000-mile Mexico-

U.S. border. (Martin, Paragraph 1). People sadly get confused and rate Trump just on how his

personality is. These people that view Trump in that manner dont really take into effect that it

is just a personality and he became that way through his professional business career. You have

to have a stern and realistic personality when you are a CEO of a billionaire corporation. So, as

one can see, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had issues and controversies throughout

their presidential campaigns. These issues and controversies both help defend the idea that the

2016 presidential election is one of the most famous in recent decades.

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It is obvious that most people are extremely surprised that Donald Trump beat Hillary

Clinton. It was almost as contentious as the election where the controversial recount of

presidential votes in Florida... handed the contested 2000 election to George W. Bush over Al

Gore. (Hasen, Paragraph 1). Many people thought that the businessman and celebrity would

not actually win the presidency. I mean, even the economy was surprised. Economists have said

that the 2016 presidential election is dividing the stock market. Although all companies face

ongoing uncertainty, the 2016 US election outcome is likely to divide the stock market into

losing (technology and utilities) and winning sectors (health care, oil and gas, real estate,

defense, financials and consumer goods and services). Judging by the campaign promises, the

best-performing companies are generally those that will gain directly from Trump's proposals

revolving around rising infrastructure spending, renegotiating trade agreements, loosening

financial regulation, easing restrictions on energy production, and repealing Obamacare.

(Selmi). So after this election, there was many different economic outcomes as well. As you can

see, different sectors of the stock market fluctuated and some sectors became better and some

became worse. In the beginning stages of voting, Hillary Clinton started to pull away with the

votes, but, Donald Trump would later make head way and finish with a very strong outcome.

Donald Trump finished with many more electoral votes, which blew away the American

populous. Donald J. Trump won the Electoral College with 304 votes compared to 227 votes

for Hillary Clinton. Seven electors voted for someone other than their partys candidate.

(NYTimes). Donald Trump finished with 34 more votes than he needed to win the presidency.

The overall amount needed to win the election was 270, which he greatly surpassed. It is

surprising too because Hillary Clinton fell way short with only obtaining 227. Many thought

Hillary would beat Donald in the electoral votes part of the election.
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Since Donald Trump has won the election, he has been portrayed by the media pretty

poorly. Many different sources, have been bombarding Trump with negative news about him

that in turn, makes him look bad. Many of these sources are very famous news broadcasts,

blogs, magazines, and much more. New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni attacked

Trump's character in an article discussing his unlikely appeal with evangelical Christian voters.

He wrote, "He just about runs the table on the seven deadly sins. He personifies greed, embodies

pride, radiates lust. Wrath is covered by his anti-immigrant, anti-'losers' rants, and if we interpret

gluttony to include big buildings and not just Big Macs, hes a glutton through and through. That

leaves envy and sloth. Im betting that he harbors plenty of the former, though Ill concede that

he exhibits none of the latter. (Coyle). See, a well-known New York Times columnist voices his

own opinion towards Trump which is trying to appeal to Christians. This a religious group that

has a great number of voters that are for Trump so it is obvious this columnist is trying to divide

this group. Most media sources now a day will have something about Trump that is bad, rather

than good. This negative media coverage can also be viewed as a positive for Trump throughout

his presidential campaign and presidency. For example, Trump said, Ive gotten so much free

advertising, its like nothing Id have expected. When you look at cable television, a lot of the

programs are 100 percent Trump, so why would you need more Trump during the commercial

breaks? (Coyle). Another example of this being a positive is that because of Democrats, a less

hysterical and emotionally-driven reaction to Trumps campaign would have provided a sounder

basis for defeating him. (Steff, Paragraph 1). All these media outlets are talking about him so

much that his name is even more popular, which can be a negative or a positive. The media

coverage can be a positive towards Trump because it helped him get nominated and win the

election. Trump appeared to have played the media expertly, with a combination of staged and
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unscheduled appearances and a vigorous social media presence. (Lawrence Paragraph 2). The

uses of things such as twitter and the constant media coverage helps make Trumps name more

popular and in the end helped him in the election. So based off all this information, it can be

seen how the different parts of the media have both positively and negatively affected Trumps

political campaign.

Other than the media, famous people have been trying to use their stardom to ridicule

Trump. His opponents use their celebrity status to publically expose their political ideas in a

sense that lots of people will see it. This could also make so called normal people reevaluate

how they view Trump just based off of what some of their favorite celebrities think. One of

Donald Trumps most outspoken opponents is no other than the Terminator himself, Arnold

Schwarzenegger. Arnold is not just an actor though; he also is a politician so his opinion can

seem much more important than just simply a celebrities input. I mean the two men shouldnt

have the same political ideas anyway because Schwarzenegger is a Democrat while Trump is a

Republican. Arnold has opposed Trumps ideas such as the travel ban and can be shown

showing his dislike for him by saying things like, Dont get into a stinking contest with a

skunk. (Real). Obviously the comments made towards Trump in this situation were not meant

to be taken kindly and show the level of animosity between the two men. This is just one simple

situation where Trump has been ridiculed by a famous person. Dozens and dozens of others

have also voiced their opinion in hopes of ruining Trumps presidential name.

The overall reaction by America after the recent presidential election was that of surprise.

Donald Trump ended up defeating Hillary Clinton for the title of President of the United States in

a close, hard fought election. Almost every person following the presidential race thought that

the democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, had the election in her hands. They were very wrong
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though, Trump did not lose hope and he ended up victorious. This presidential election is one of

the most famous presidential elections in recent decades, especially due to all the different

controversies surrounding the two candidates. The main reason the recent presidential election is

one of the most famous elections in recent decades is because you have a celebrity businessman,

Trump, versus a woman whose whole political career is surrounded by controversy and

problems, Clinton. It can simply state that on one end you have a celebrity personality and on

the other you have a woman thats life has been about building her credentials to run for

president. (Elovitz, Paragraph 1). Many Americans had no clue how Trump had won, and their

reactions are mixed. There are many people who are very pleased with the outcome of Trump

winning, but there is also a huge population of people who are extremely upset with it. Many of

the pleased individuals are people who fall under the category of being considered a

Jacksonian. This is because trumps political is similar to Jacksonians because Trump put

America first. (Jones, Paragraph 5). Patriotism is believed to be back basically. Although,

many media outlets have been portraying Trump harshly which is no surprise. This is because

the media doesnt like how Donald Trump portrays himself and the things he says. Also, many

famous individuals, such as athletes and celebrities, have used their stardom to criticize Donald

Trump or place their input into the recent election. The overall reactions to Donald Trump

winning the recent election are very interesting because there are so many different opinions.

Saying these ideas, the goal of this research paper is to look at how an underdog, Donald Trump,

somehow one an election to a famous politician, Hillary Clinton, and also what the reactions

were to Trumps victory.

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Works Cited

Bouoiyour, Jamal, and Refk Selmi. "Does Trump's Election Victory Divide US Stock

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2017.

Cindy, Jung. "The Trump Exception: Christian Morals and the Presidency." Harvard

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Coyle, Kelly. "The Media's Coverage of Donald Trump." Ballotpedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 26

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ELOVITZ, PAUL H. "A Psychobiographical and Psycho-Political Comparison of Clinton and

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Oct. 2007, pp. 1-44. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

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Martin, Philip. "Trump and U.S. Immigration Policy." California Agriculture, vol. 71, no. 1, Jan-

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"Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins." The New York Times. The New York

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Steff, Reuben. "The Audacity of Trump: How He Won and What We Missed." New Zealand

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Journals; ProQuest Computer Science Journals; US Southeast Newsstream, May 19

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