As President Donald Trump began his second term, controversy and division took over the nation.
The U.S. broke into two distinct sides: Trump supporters and the opposing. The high school alike faced tensions.
Trump’s first large action as president consisted of him signing off on 98 executive orders and counting. For Republicans, it was a relief to have someone who takes action.
“Personally, I think [the rate of Trump’s executive orders] is great; he’s trying to get stuff done. I’ve heard he stays up in the middle of the night working on stuff, and I really like that. It shows he is determined to do his job and get stuff done fast,” Noah Rasch, 12, said.
On the other hand, some students who fall under the Democratic party find this approach to be generative of a “dictatorship,” according to Alexandro Garcia, 12.
“One of the very first executive orders he made was to get rid of birthright citizenship, which, one, is an amendment and was made to protect freed slaves, and two, as a person of color myself, I think it is simply deplorable that he would do something like that. It feels like it is going back to American exceptionalism and the protections of the elites,” Garcia said.
In his series of executive orders, Trump got rid of the previous diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy put into place from the Biden Administration. Initially, this was put into policy to ensure that citizens with disadvantages stood equal opportunity to their privileged counterparts. An executive order made on Jan. 20 changed this.
“I think that it is all inherently colonialist in a way. Getting rid of DEI, I understand how you wouldn’t want to hire someone based solely on their race, but again these people are marginalized and have been in a long cycle of marginalization, and DEI is one of the few ways where you can end that and truly have equal rights for everyone,” Garcia said.
Rasch’s opinions conflict and support why Trump took away mandatory DEI policies.
“I support [Trump taking away DEI] because DEI was more for predatory nature. It was more focused on your sex or race rather than your merit or what you have to offer with your work ethic. It made sexism and racism more profound because it was focusing on that rather than viewing people as individuals.”
Along with the erasure of DEI, Trump’s administration is working toward dismantling the board of education. The Republican party, as a whole, is all for this action.
“I think that abolishing the Department of Education is a good thing. On a lot of U.S. policies, it’s become the bureaucracy and not for the people — it’s for the government. It’s how we make the most money. I think it’s why governments are specifically corporations,” Kaylee Howell, 11, said.
Rasch also agrees that defunding the Board of Education will be a positive change.
“I know the Board of Education has federal aid, which is good, but overall they don’t really do their jobs great. They aren’t improving education at all, so if Trump does get rid of it obviously he has a solution as to what to put into place for that,” Rasch said.
The Democratic party, however, is fearful of what might ensue when the board is gone.
“The board of education is controversial because it provides lots of students with scholarship opportunities like FAFSA. We need a centralized board of education because each state already has their different curriculum, but I think the misuse of power, if we were to leave it up to the states, would create more problems than positive changes,” Garcia said.
With the many executive orders and publicity that Trump has gotten thus far in their presidency, some Democrats are fearful of a dictatorship progressing.
“I don’t think Trump is a dictator. I think he is very aggressive in presidential actions, but so far he has been doing things by the book. He hasn’t broken any laws or done anything that asserts him as fully a dictator, so I do not think he is a dictator,” Rasch said.
With the presidency as a whole, the Democratic party sees a myriad of issues that will occur.
“I completely think that we are in threat of a modern Hitler. Considering that Hitler was able to demolish a democracy in 53 days,” Garcia said, “I think that Trump is capable of doing the same thing. Especially now that the Republicans have a blind loyalty toward him and would do anything that he wants to.”
