So, President Trump Happened

Unless you are living under a rock, you likely know by now that America has picked their poison next president: Donald Trump.

For many voters, it was an unfortunate election that pitted the worst candidate ever against the second worst candidate ever.  Sure, there are Trump supporters who are eagerly invested on him, but surely, there were a couple who voted for him reluctantly, considering him the “lesser evil.”

Personally, I didn’t really like Trump.  And as someone who tends to have more affinity for the Republicans than the Democrats, I was stunned that he won the GOP primaries.  I felt he didn’t have the sufficient decency to represent the conservative party.  He was mean, angry, inconsistent, aloof, and sleazy.  And I felt that, since he’s a businessman, he might use the office of the presidency to serve his self-interests.  Also, since he had switched between parties a couple of times, and had financially contributed to both Democrats and Republicans through the years, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was just playing the field, and might not quite be fully sincere with his conservative views.  I even contemplated that he might had been a Democrat plant on the Republican Party, that he was part of an intricate Democrat plot to discredit the Republican Party so that Hillary could have an easy win (this idea looks silly now).

As I follow the campaign period, I didn’t really care who would win.  I neither liked Trump nor Clinton.  But in the end, I was kind of rooting for Trump a bit (or, better, that this year’s election would be somehow voided or postponed, so that the two parties could have another try of picking better candidates).  Here’s why:

1. Regardless of his immensely flawed character, he was still the Republican candidate.  I didn’t agree with all his views (as I don’t agree with all Republican views in the first place) – and even on some of the things I did agree with, I didn’t agree with his rhetoric.  However, between his (and his party’s) stand on issues and Hillary’s (and the Dems’), I found more things on his that I can agree on than with hers.
2. Hillary is a career criminal mastermind politician who had perfected how to be deviously corrupt and break laws, but avoid punishment for them.  This was made more apparent by the WikiLeaks e-mail hacks, which revealed a couple of shady deals happening behind closed doors in Hillary’s camp.  Heck, there were even some creepy occult connections.
3. I couldn’t stand the bias of many mainstream media outlets.  It was so shockingly blatant how they were siding with Hillary.   It’s so infuriating that I don’t doubt that there are people who voted for Trump out of spite for the media’s infuriating, credibility-bankrupting partiality.
4. I also couldn’t stand the hypocrisy of some Hillary supporters.  They claimed to be against hate, intolerance, and bullying.  But whenever someone professed support for Trump, they would respond unkindly and even savagely. (These are the same people who are now throwing tantrums and violently protesting after Trump won.)

Trump winning the election was pretty remarkable.  The odds were seemingly not on his favor.  He wasn’t the “cool vote.”  He had to go against the occurrence of a historical milestone: the first female POTUS.  Hillary had a more well-oiled campaign machinery.  She had the media backing.  Virtually all celebrities were for her.  Many media manipulated sponsored surveys favored a Hillary win.  Heck, Trump didn’t even have the 100% support of the GOP, as many prominent Republican leaders either withdraw they support for him or officially endorsed Hillary.  It’s insane how everything was stacked against him.  And yet, the Trump campaign managed to overcome all those things.

So what can we take from Trump winning?  No, it’s not, “There are a lot of racists and sexists in America, that’s why he won.”  That conclusion, as liberal media pundits are asserting now, is irresponsibly stupid.  Most women and minority votes went to Clinton, unsurprisingly, but the disparity wasn’t as great as expected – with Trump surprisingly still receiving solid amount of women and minority votes.  In fact, Trump got more votes from minorities than previous Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney did in 2012!

Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio voted for Obama in 2012.  But this 2016 election, Trump won in these states.  This means that the same people that voted for Obama voted for Trump.  To suggest that racism is the core factor why they voted for Trump doesn’t make sense.  If there were any votes for Trump that were motivated by contempt for Obama, it’s not because of the color of his skin, but because they felt betrayed by his administration and wanted change.

They voted against Clinton, not because she’s a woman, but because she’s a long-time Washington insider.  She represents the prevalently crooked practices in the government.  Voting for Trump – a political outsider – was their way of giving the corrupt Washington establishment the middle finger.  The people are desperate of change – any kind of “change”, as long as its “change”, even if it’s something vague and uncertain at the hands of someone politically inexperienced and deeply flawed as Donald Trump.  His message of “draining the swamp” mightily appealed to them.

In the end, I’m uncomfortable with a Trump presidency.  He did make some worrying remarks.  And even if he did make some likable promises, it’s very uncertain if he would actually carry them out.  Moreover, according to some experts, his policies will negatively affect Filipinos (though I hope President Duterte and Trump will be able to get along well due to their similar brusque personalities), as well as the rest of the international community.

For now, I can’t shake the feeling that President Trump would end up being something like Ramsay Bolton, Emperor Palpatine, and President Camacho rolled into one.  But still, the best way to approach it is to “wait and see.”  Give him a chance.  Even Hillary expressed such sentiment.

Nonetheless, it’s already apparent that Trump will have a rather unpopular presidency.  His own personality and the liberal media’s relentless assaults will see to that.  Hopefully, his critics would be proven wrong in the long run, and he’d surprisingly behave properly as a head of state and help make the world a better place.

But even if he’ll be a terrible POTUS, this remains true: JESUS. IS. KING!  History, governments, our lives, and every detail of Creation are under His dominion.  Regardless of whatever happens – even when it’s seemingly bad – everything will work out for good (Romans 8:28), if not here in this present world, then in the World to Come.