I do not like ‘The Donald’, as my president Barack H. Obama calls him. My opinion matches that of the popular vote, and has reasoning behind it. For starters, the rhetoric he used during his campaign speeches sparked an alt-right movement. Instead of speaking on hope and how he personally would better our country he focused on the faults of others. This made for a very dark and divided election season. “She is the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency,” Trump said of Hillary Clinton. “If she is elected, she would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis.”

     I will never forget how at one of his rallies a black man who protested Trump was being escorted out of the stadium. As he was exiting, an old white conservative man punched him in the face. This obviously roused a reaction out of the dreaded man yet before he could respond the security guards detained the protester. “Get him out,” Trump then said. “Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court, don’t worry about it.” That was the day I realised just how much I disliked ‘The Donald’. Not to mention his mere presence and comparison to Adolf Hitler have caused an uprising in the defacement of Jewish gravesites.

     Also, I am not a huge fan of his chief strategist who is borderline racist and inadvertently admitted to being so through his works of journalism. Bannon’s ex-wife has testified to his hatred of Jews has attracted a great deal of attention, but this fact both over- and understates the racial nature of his beliefs. Bannon’s journalistic work is centrally dedicated to the task of refashioning conservatism along white-identity lines. His publication, Breitbart News, has promoted the “alt-right.” Breitbart itself defines the alt-right as a more intelligent version of skinheads. -New York Magazine.

     Another one of the policies Trump put in place that I can not stand was his executive order to proceed with the Dakota Pipeline. His reasoning was to “create more jobs,” Trump claimed. Yet he neglected the voices of thousands of Native Americans who now have to witness their land being abused by white supremacy once again. I genuinely hope that this is not the America he is trying to bring back when he refers to his slogan, ‘Making America Great Again’. It’s still sacred, yet not as much now since permission was given for this pipeline to snake through the sites and under the water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

     Now let’s get into President Trump’s joint session of congress speech, and dissect it. I took notes after every point he made and divided it into two sections: things I agreed with and things I did not. Considering the list of things that I agreed with Trump on is significantly smaller, I will start off by discussing those points.

     For starters I liked that he opened up his speech by acknowledging black history month and he addressed the jewish defacement that has been occurring all across the nation. He obviously did not have to address either of these things in his speech, but the fact that he did shows how he is conscious of the racial controversy that follows his Presidency. Instead of avoiding the situation and racial tension he faced it head on and mentioned it in the first three sentences of his speech. I also enjoyed the change in his rhetoric. Straight out of the gate, Trump used the words “unity” and “new surge of optimism” which are two phrases that would be hard to match with his previous campaign. I was pleased when Trump brought up the new jobs that are being created through businesses such as Ford, Sprint, and Walmart. They are investing billions of dollars to see it through, he is saying what people want to hear. I also like the change in non-conventional politicians for our leaders. When Trump said, “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption, by creating a five year ban on lobbying officials.” He is trying to cut down on government and is approaching this President job as a fellow citizen of the United States instead of a politician. I also had to agree with Trump when he said that the political parties should unite in order to confront the issues of our nation. “Solving these, and so many other pressing problems, will require us to work past the differences of party. It will require us to tap into the American spirit that has overcome every challenge throughout our long and storied history,” Trump said. This, I can fully agree with. It is about time that our nation united, and stopped attacking each other dividedly. “My administration wants to work with members in both parties to make child care accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents have paid family leave, to invest in women’s health, and to promote clean air and clear water, and to rebuild our military and our infrastructure,” Trump said. When he mentioned this in his speech, I just thought his focus on child care was cute and important. That rightfully should be on his agenda yet often times gets overlooked by government. Even though clean water was mentioned way too far down in his speech when it should be a higher up pertinent time sensitive information, at least it is on his agenda as well.

     On the other side of his arguments, there were a lot of points that Trump brought up that I did not agree with. He lost me at the borders and drugs part where he said, “We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate.” Personally, I felt like he was insinuating that our neighbors from the south are the main reason for our drug epidemic, which is false, and borderline offensive. And when he brought up the Dakota Pipeline I was livid. “We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs — and I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel,” Trump said. If creating more jobs was the sole reason for proceeding with the construction of a steel pipe on sacred land then why can’t Walmart and Sprint hire the pipeline workers for the jobs that you mentioned in his first positive point. Trump is already paving the way for Americans to work jobs that most of them do not want, while preventing the only americans (southern americans) who are willing to do their hard work from entering into our country. Another thing I disagreed with was when he said “To protect our citizens, I have directed the Department of Justice to form a Task Force on Reducing Violent Crime.” Okay it’s good that he is trying to reduce crime, but if he goes about it the same way he discussed while he was campaigning which involved “law and order” ergo the unconstitutional stop and frisk policy, then that means bringing back racial profiling. All of that might be a great jump of an assumption however i’m not for it… give me some details Trump. How will you stop them? I am not against him reducing crime, however, I am fully against his past approach on the subject.  “At the same time, my Administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We want all Americans to succeed — but that can’t happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders,” Trump said. Here he goes again correlating immigration with crime. Not all foreign newcomers from close borders are here to harm people. “For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when finished, it will be a very effective weapon against drugs and crime,” Trump said. ENOUGH WITH THIS WALL! I can guarantee that Trump is not building a wall that can go over mountains, rivers, and more sacred land. Trump is not paying for a wall that will cost more than his net worth and Beyonce’s net worth combined. Trump is not serious about getting workers to build this wall for America, because most great monuments and walls he is comparing this vision to were made by slaves. Imbecile. Mexico is not paying for that wall either. “Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our Nation from Radical Islamic Terrorism,” REALLY?! We are still saying islamic terrorism? Most terrorists are not muslim, and more Americans are being murdered from U.S. citizens than terrorist attacks alone. The more he encourages this phrase of ‘islamic’ terrorism, the longer his supporters will continue to generalize a whole faith based on opposing beliefs to their conservative ways. He is only for the business tax cuts because he is coming from the biased opinion of owning a huge business, just like obama was middle class so he was for middle class tax cuts. There is no one sticking up for the lower class in this entire speech. Where are the Presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson and Obama who grew up experiencing life in all three classes: upper class, middle class, and lower class therefore they set aside policies to help out our impoverished citizens like healthcare, medicaid, and medicare? I highly doubt that Donald Trump knows the true meaning of affordable when he uses it. Then Trump brought up VOICE, which was the icing on the ‘have you lost you mind’ cake. Really? A program directed towards immigrant crime called victims of immigration crime engagement. “We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests,” Trump said. I hope he does realise that very few illegal immigrants are cold blooded criminals. “Analyses of census data from 1980 through 2010 show that among men ages 18 to 49, immigrants were one-half to one-fifth as likely to be incarcerated as those born in the United States. Across all ages and sexes, about seven percent of the nation’s population are noncitizens, while figures from the Justice Department show that about 5 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons are noncitizens.”(The New York Times) I feel like a program centered at such a focus as immigrant criminals is highly unnecessary. The first settlers to come here and steal land were illegal immigrants. We are a country built off of immigrants, a melting pot given Ellis Island.

     Anyway, there were some major things I liked and disliked about the President’s speech to congress. I only hope that Trump can come down from his pedestal long enough to realise that when we look at both sides to an argument, enlightenment appears. That is all I can ever hope for this cheeto from hell.