By: Madison Shanfeld
It is official, Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Wether you are popping champagne or the lid to Ben and Jerry’s, it is crucial to look at what this means for the country.
HOW IT WAS WON
Despite the many polls, the country was more lopsided than previously thought. The
country anticipated a multitude of recounts from the swing states but the vote was clean and the margin was above the one percent needed to institute a recount. This meant that unlike the 2020 election, which took until Saturday to complete, the results were final by the time citizens on the east coast woke up Wednesday morning.
Donald Trump won both the popular and the electoral college vote, taking Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona,
also known as all seven swing states. The election
still was not a blowout for the Trump campaign, he received 277 electoral college votes, or 51%, and Kamala Harris received 224, or 47.5%. The Harris Campaign gave a valiant effort, yet came up short.
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN?
Abortion
The issue of abortion was one of the most influential when it came to the 2024 presidential election. Now that Donald Trump has been elected president, there is a more clear image of what the fight over abortion rights may look like.
Donald Trump currently claims that he will not be signing a federal abortion ban, and wants to leave that decision up to the individual states. However, political experts have pointed out new ways the Trump administration may restrict abortions throughout the nation without banning it explicitly
Since the Trump administration has had varied opinions and claims about abortion, including President Trump taking pride for his appointments overturning Roe vs Wade, and his support of a House Bill nationally banning abortion after 20 weeks during his presidency, political experts say that the road of abortion rights could go several directions. Since he currently says he will not sign a national ban, it is expected to have efforts to restrict abortion pills, which accounted for 63% of all abortions in the last year.
Even if Trump is to change his mind and begins to promote the idea of a national
abortion ban, the likelihood of it ever reaching his desk is slim. Even though the House and Senate are both majority Republican, they do not have supermajority, a specified proportion of votes as required by a legislature to pass certain measures, in Congress to get such a controversial issue to the President’s desk. That means that the battle over
abortion rights will mostly be confined to the state level.
Even if the topic of an abortion ban never reaches Donald Trump himself, there are other ways in which he could influence it. As the head of the Executive branch, he has a lot of control over the bureaucracy and different agencies within the government. In short, Trump can influence how government agencies implement and enforce the abortion laws in the United States. For example, he could issue an executive order saying that the agencies need to be more strict with their enforcement, like interstate shipping in the context of national safety.
Department of Education
The Department of Education is something that few Americans actually know the purpose for. During its initial creation under the Carter administration, it was intended to collect and compile data for what is and is not working in education for the use of policy makers and educators. The GI Bill was integrated into this department and the science,math, and foreign language programs that were created after the soviets launching of sputnik in the 60s was also included within the DOE. After the civil rights movements in the 60s and 70s the Department of Education then became a hub for enforcement of equal protection under the law against discrimination in educational environments. In addition, Title I funding was implemented to reduce the gaps in achievements possible for students based on economic funding and Title IX put the Department of Education in charge of regulation for gender discrimination in schools.
Donald Trump has recently come out and said that he is planning to dissolve the Department of Education, DOE. This would be accompanied with the work done by the DOE being sent back to the states. Many experts claim that the loss of the Department of Education could result in billions of funds, grants, and scholarships hanging in the balance for millions of K-12 and college students in the United States today.
People who criticize the DOE mention how the federal funding toward education has greatly increased since its establishment, going as far as 23 billion dollars to date for the 2025 fiscal year. That 23 billion dollars is about 4% of total government funding.
So why does Trump specifically want to eliminate it? He claims that the states are closer to the children that would be educated, and different states need different types of education so, “We want them to run the education of our children because they'll do a much better job of it,"
The question still stands about what will happen to the programs, such as Title I, IX, the FASFA (financial aid), within the DOE once it has been dismantled, but it will all be revealed should Trump follow through on his ambitious endeavor.
Israel v Palestine
Israeli officials are excited for the Trump presidency to begin in January, their prime
minister being one of the first to call Donald Trump to congratulate his victory. His victory was shortly preceded by the firing of Israel’s defense minister, who was a main point of contact between Israel and the Biden administration. Polls even suggest that a whopping 67% of Israelis were pleased with Trump’s election.
Broadly, Trump has called for a cease-fire and a desire to end the war in the middle east claiming that Israel has a right “right to win its war on terror.” However, the plans to do so are not explicitly stated anywhere the general public can access.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is patiently waiting for Trump’s term to begin since he has the expectation that Trump will push to give Israel the supplies needed to escalate and eventually end the war.
Farwaz Gerges is a professor of International Relations in London and he claims that Trump will remain loyal to Israel just as he was in his 2016 presidency where he made the decision to name Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. In addition, Gerges adds that both Trump and Kamala would have supported Israel because foreign policy and relations in the United States is “wedded back to Israel.” historically.
Palestinians are not as thrilled as the Israelis but feel that it would not have mattered since America was going to side with Israel anyway. Some Palestinians, like 19 year old Hussam Alsharif, trust Trump’s word that he will end the war.
Antisemitism
Going into the election, some jews remained nervous about the implication of Trump’s possible victory. This anxiety was mostly fueled by the comment Trump made before the election, “If I don't win this election - and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because if 40%, I mean, 60% of the people are voting for the enemy - Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years” This statement came from a recent poll saying that Kamala Harris is pulling about 60% of American Jews and the sentiment that he garnered less than 30% of the American Jewish vote in the 2016 and 2020 election. The actual poll he was citing is still unknown but a Pew Research Survey at that time stated that Harris was leading the jewish votes 65% to 34%.
Why was the Jewish vote so important to Trump? The Trump campaign attempted to make a push to win over the jewish vote because in several swing states there were a large jewish population, and in recent history, the Democrats have safely won the majority vote. For example, Pennsylvania has 400,000 jewish people and in the 2020 election, Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,000 votes.
Now that Donald Trump has clutched his seat in the oval office, what can the country
anticipate happening in regard to antisemitism and the jewish population? During Obama’s presidency, The United States Department of Civil Rights adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. However, during his first presidency, Trump applied this assertively while analyzing Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With this he held anti-zionist accountable. Zionists are people who believe in the development and protection of the jewish nation of Israel. In addition, Trump signed an Executive Order in 2019 that made it easier to use laws to prohibit discrimination internationally based on race, color, or national origin in order to address religious discrimination- specifically anti-zionists.
Trump also said, “Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support.” when discussing the recent antisemitic activities on college campuses following the October 7th terror attacks.
Despite the several positive statements made in favor of the jewish American population, there are a couple things rubbing them the wrong way. First of all, Trump stated, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” This upset the jewish population in the United States since the Holocaust was a mass murder of jews in Europe led by Adolf Hitler, and having a possible future president idealize that type of dictator swayed the jews away from Trump's campaign.
Hopefully, in the upcoming years, one can expect antisemitism to decrease if Trump maintains the zionist values from his first presidency.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Whether you are part of the population that is overjoyed to be entering the new administration come January or one of those wishing to turn back time so January never arrives it is crucial to understand what this victory for Trump may mean for the issues you care about and for your country.
works citied
Alfonseca, Kiara. “What eliminating the Department of Education could mean for students, schools.” abc7NY, 19 November 2024, https://abc7ny.com/post/donald-trump-transition-news-what-eliminating-department-education-could-mean-students-schools/15559633/. Accessed 1 December 2024.
Goldberg, Jeffrey. “Trump: 'I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had.'” The Atlantic, 22 October 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/. Accessed 3 December 2024.
Krämer, Tania. “What does Trump's win mean for the Israel-Hamas conflict? – DW – 11/08/2024.” DW, 8 November 2024, https://www.dw.com/en/what-does-trumps-win-mean-for-the-israel-hamas-conflict/a-70727902. Accessed 2 December 2024.
Nauta, Sacha. “What will happen with abortion rights now in America?” econamist.com, 20 November 2024, https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2024/11/20/what-will-happen-with-abortion-rights-now-in-america. Accessed 21 November 2024.
Silva, Chantal Da, and Alexander Smith. “Israel celebrates, Ukraine frets: What Trump’s win means for U.S. allies at war.” NBC News, 6 November 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-election-win-israel-ukraine-war-russia-rcna178903. Accessed 2 December 2024.
Slattery, Gram, and Tim Reid. “Donald Trump says Jews will be partly to blame if he loses election.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-says-jews-will-be-partly-blame-if-he-loses-election-2024-09-20/. Accessed 3 December 2024.
“What to Know About President-Elect Trump on Antisemitism, Israel, and Iran Policy.” 12 November 2024, https://www.ajc.org/news/what-to-know-about-president-elect-trump-on-antisemitism-israel-and-iran-policy. Accessed 3 December 2024.
“What Trump's 2024 election win could mean for abortion rights in the U.S.” NBC News, 8 November 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortion-rights-under-trump-rcna178998. Accessed 21 November 2024.
Comentários