Continuing our new series of stories from our Young People’s Voices project – funded by Victorious Festival and supported by the University of Portsmouth – student at Havant and South Downs College, Joshua Moynihan voices his opinions on Donald Trump’s policies concerning climate change, his use of the term fake news in regards to this and how Trump is not fit for office.
In recent times, no US President has attracted as much controversy and debate as Donald Trump.
With issues such as climate change, immigration to the United States and attempting to gather the funds and the support for his infamous border wall with Mexico, Trump’s policies and beliefs on these matters can only be defined as unbelievable. Especially if you consider that Trump is supposed to be ‘the leader of the free world’ and is most likely the most powerful man in the world, the fact that he has this much power and influence in order to be able to enforce his outdated and traditional views is extremely worrying.
In addition to this, the fact that there are many people both inside and outside the United States who support these policies is, in one word, terrifying. Often taking to social media sites (most notably Twitter in this case), Trump takes advantage of the fact that he is the leader of the free world in order to put across his agenda to his people and the rest of the world, often gaining support and encouragement from his small-minded supporters regardless of what he says and who he offends.
One of the most outrageous acts that Trump has committed since he first took office in 2016 (after enforcing his rules on immigration, banning transgender individuals from serving in the US military, and banning visitors from Muslim majority countries, to name but a few) is his blatant refusal to accept the effects and consequences of climate change on the environment. Yes, despite all of the legitimate evidence from scientists, satellite images of the melting polar ice caps, and even a heart-rendering photo of a lone polar bear clinging onto a tiny melted iceberg, Trump still ignorantly continues to call this ever-growing problem as ‘fake news‘, a term that Trump has used considerably during his time in office, and even before/during his campaign rallies (although conveniently only when responding to allegations of misconduct made against him or his supporters – no surprise there!).
If this isn’t good enough evidence that Trump simply isn’t fit for office, perhaps considering the fact that he blatantly refuses to take action or at least discuss the issue should be good enough evidence to prove that he isn’t fit for the role. Pro-Trump supporters often say that he has the interests of the American people at heart to justify his actions. In reality, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, they are totally oblivious to what is happening around them, and instead support and vote for Trump not just because of what he stands for, but also because his supporters can most likely relate to his racist, homophobic and misogynistic ideas and policies, and he often displays this discriminatory behaviour in his daily life and his political life.
Most recently, he has dismissed scientific evidence of climate change as merely a ‘change in the weather‘as if it was normal and not to be worried about. Furthermore, this suggests that Trump is saying that we should not worry about it, and instead just kick our feet up and watch it happen before us when instead we should be taking action in order to reverse the catastrophic events of climate change. He has also stated that it can ‘go both ways‘ and that whatever we do there could be bad consequences, thus further implying that we should do nothing to combat it as it probably won’t have much effect.
So there you have it. If this has changed your mind and opinion on Trump, and you have seen the light on how incompetent he is, then mission accomplished. And if not, then I pity you. I’m sure one day you will ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ as they say and take notice of what the effects of climate change will have on the future generations. Unlike Trump, who should take steps to reverse climate change and its effects on the world and the future generations. And while he’s at it, he should just take that orange cat off of his head – that can’t be good either!
The Young People’s Voices project aims to provide young people with a platform to share their opinions, report on topics that affect them and advance standards of literacy. We worked with students from St Edmunds School and Havant and South Downs College to investigate and write their own stories, in a variety of styles and mediums – from creative memoir and opinion pieces to their own investigations. All their work will be published on S&C throughout July, and all participants have the chance to enter their work into a competition to read their story on the Spoken Word Stage at the 2019 Victorious Festival. You will find all the Young People’s Voices stories here as we publish them.
This project is supported by the University of Portsmouth, with thanks to the teams in Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI). It was delivered by University of Portsmouth MSc and PhD researchers Maddie Wallace and Lauren Jones.
