It’s been five months since Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Two months have passed since his inauguration and the executive orders he signed. He made several promises in his campaign, the most famous being that he would “make America great again”. Yesterday, nationwide protests sprang into action as citizens showed their anger at how their country is being led.
Actions from the Trump Administration have led supporters to lose faith in the President. Many have faced consequences they didn’t expect when voting for him.
A tracker from The Economist shows that President Trump’s approval ratings have been on a downward trend since the start of 2025.
However, one anonymous citizen told me that they would still vote for President Trump, despite only agreeing with some of the policies in place and being personally affected by them. They declined to comment further.
University students continue to feel pressure from President Trump’s changes
Witnessing the change in atmosphere at Washington State University has been terrifying as a student studying abroad from Scotland. Each day, another horror story pops up in Journalism and Communication classes, from a pro-Palestine protestor being detained in a Louisiana immigration centre despite having a green card to a French scientist being denied entry to the US after anti-Trump texts were found on his phone.
Sighs of despair and shoulders slumped with helplessness are commonplace among student journalists at WSU right now – ones that have only deepened as months have drawn on. Yet these students continue to pursue a profession of some danger during such times. It’s something to find admiral, I believe.
Journalism students are not the only people affected by changes. There have been fears regarding what will happen to Federal Student Aid (FSA) as President Trump cut jobs from the financial aid and student loan office.
More Americans are looking to move abroad since Trump’s second term began
An anonymous citizen told me about their thoughts on President Trump. They even went as far as saying they have thought about leaving the country.
“I do not support the policies [from the Trump Administration] because the mass majority of them are repealing past ones or putting new ones that simply harm working class Americans,” they said.
It’s easy to dismiss America as a country of close-minded Trump supporters. It’s easy to forget that not everyone follows his lead or agrees with his actions, that these are real people suffering the consequences of his presidency.
In the four months that I’ve been in Washington, I’ve met more and more Americans that are looking to move abroad, away from the US and away from President Trump’s power. Americans that are forced to choose between living in a country where being LGBTQ+, being a woman, being a person of colour, being any minority is dangerous, and moving abroad to a life completely foreign to them.
Every day that a new story breaks about people having visas revoked or being arrested for protesting, I thank my luck that I am only here temporarily – I can go home. People here are already home, but their home is becoming twisted and dangerous for many of them.
We are being educated on how to protect ourselves as journalists, more than I ever have been back home, due to the dangers that are rising within the industry. Journalists face doxing, harassment, online trolling, and hacking in the US. But we’re far from the only people affected.
Protests continue to oppose the President
People around the world face negative consequences from the effects of the Trump Administration. The most recent example was the chaos caused in the stock market with Trump’s new tariffs. Protests, like the Hands Off movement, are springing up across the globe in defiance of President Trump’s leadership. Recently, Democratic Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the longest Senate speech. He stood and spoke for more than 25 hours in opposition to President Trump.
Brian, a citizen in New Jersey, holds strong opinions about the current president.
“[Trump’s] horribly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, a convicted felon and [a] rapist. He wishes to erase trans people from this earth. He supports the ethnic cleansing occurring in Palestine. His economic plan completely destroys the funds of poorer folks and gives tax breaks to the wealthy. The list [of why I don’t support him] goes on for miles and miles,” he said.
Brian has been personally affected by some of the policies that the Trump Administration has implemented. He feels that President Trump is not running the country well.
“He’s doing an awful job. He’s completely gutting many key parts of the American government and tearing apart families,” Brian said.
The surnames/full names/home states of some sources used in this article have been purposefully left out at the source’s request. This is to protect their identity.
Featured Image Credit: Emma Christie
Fourth year student journalist studying Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Journalism Studies.
Words at Brig, The Daily Evergreen, Alloa Advertiser, Discovery Music Scotland, and The Mourning Paper.
