Intro

It’s 2025, and the November election has come to an end. Emotions are high all around the world. Fear, despair, anger, joy, excitement, however, which one is deemed fitting for the situation? Many are left wondering, what will happen next? In the past 8 years, the political differences within the United States have been drastic. The Democratic and Republican parties have had many different views on Healthcare , the Economy, Future Plans-including education, climate change, international relations, tariffs and taxes-, and the Cabinet (a powerful advisory body made up of the heads of the 15 executive departments: the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury,  Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General). We had 2 candidates that expressed a lot of arguments  on many different topics, which will be discussed throughout the piece. Politics, rather than bringing the parties together, have pushed the two further apart, leading to discrimination, violence, social prejudice, and conflict. 

Economy

According to many interviewed voters, the main reason that they voted for Trump was because the, “economy was better than it had ever been in the United States’ History.” However, that may not be the case. You see, in the United States’, the economy of the previous president heavily influences the economy of the next. We know that Obama created a  strong economy throughout his 8 years of presidency. He reduced healthcare expenses and almost tripled the income of middle class home owners and workers. Once Trump was elected to office, he did have a steady economy, but as the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the economy started to move at an even slower pace. Many experts note that Trump's economic progress was due to the economy that he inherited. Once COVID-19 hit, the economy declined. Although Trump was successful in carrying the economy before this pandemic, he struggled greatly once it hit.  

During Trump’s presidency, the overall debt of the federal government came to an all time high. Then Biden walked into office with the pandemic roaring without a vaccine, inflation rose to 9.1%; however, as Biden leaves and the pandemic has been overcome inflation has curved to nearly 2.9% as of  December 2024. During Biden’s presidency, the post-pandemic recovery was quite a struggle to overcome. The overall workforce from 2016-2020 had decreased, increasing the unemployment rates significantly. However, under Biden, unemployment was at its lowest levels in over 50 years. The power that presidents have over the economic conditions is  complicated. They can and do impact, but there is a much larger world at play as well.

Kamala claimed that she wants to roll back tax cuts for richer Americans. Kamala claims that for anybody whose annual income is lower than 400,000 a year, there will be an increased tax cut policy to help the middle class citizens throughout the United States. Kamala proposed that the child tax credit per child would increase by roughly 1,600 dollars. She also proposed an increase for tax credits in the middle class, to roughly $6,000 for families with children the ages of 1 and under. Kamala emphasized the idea of Healthcare assistance for those who cannot live independently at home alone. She mentioned various programs that she would assist in helping the elderly community within these healthcare facilities. However, Trump noted that he would cap credit card rates at roughly 10%, he said, “We're going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates at 10%. We have no choice”, to hopefully decrease the amount of credit card debt. Trump notes at one of his rallies, that, “We can’t let them make 20 and 30%,” emphasizing his plans to cap the rates and hopefully decrease credit card debt. While some may encourage this cap, others claim that this would negatively impact many citizens who tend to have lower credit scores, leaving countless lenders not wanting to help or give money to lower class citizens. Many also claim that a cap on these cards would decrease the benefits of those with higher credit card scores, making many wonder, what is the point?

Future Plans

Donald Trump has promised he would do many things in his second term of Presidency. Many things such as, the largest deportation of immigrants in US history, and he wants to make detention camps to keep immigrants out of the country. He has promised sweeping tariffs on imports, a freeze on climate-related regulations, a remake of federal health agencies, and changes in the education system. Trump is mainly focused on tax breaks, and Affordable Care Act Changes. The Trump administration will be able to change immigration enforcement, impose tariffs, get rid of  regulations, intervene in overseas wars and shape the education system. When talking about immigration and the southern border, Trump has a lot of ideas, such as building huge detention camps, implementing mass deportations at a scale never before seen, hiring thousands more border agents, funneling military spending toward border security, and invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without a court hearing. 

Donald Trump says he will  keep the United States “safe” and keep “criminals” from coming into the country. Trump claims that he wants to completely end the war that is happening in Gaza.  However, Israel and Gaza have agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal on 1/15/25 under the Biden Administration.  President Biden announced in a farewell address from the Oval Office, "This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That's why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed.”  After the agreement was announced, Trump proclaimed on social media, “This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies.”  Although the deal for the ceasefire appears to be completed, it’s important to know this conflict has been ongoing and the incoming administration with Trump has more of a hardline stance against Gaza and support for Israel.

Healthcare

Donald Trump has been marking a whole new era for health industries and the agencies they oversee. Donald Trump elected Robert Kennedy Jr. to make major healthcare decisions and told him to “go wild” on health, medicine, and food policies. A major health role for Kennedy would shift the Republican agenda away from policy debates over legislation and regulation toward a more fundamental one about the government’s role in medicine. Kennedy doesn’t support vaccines and claims that they cause autism. He has written a book accusing former NIH official Anthony Fauci of conspiring with tech mogul Bill Gates and drug makers to sell Covid vaccines, and launched a movement to “make America healthy again” by replacing officials at agencies he says are captives of the industries they regulate, eliminating “toxic additives and pesticide residues” in food, promoting alternative medicine and ending fluoridation of public water. 

Trump and Kennedy have 4 key themes that address healthcare options and costs. Such as, promoting access to healthcare via market competition & transparency, enhancing flexibility and choices in healthcare to states & individuals, focusing on deregulation or modifying Biden-era policies, and enhancing national security with “America First” principles. The Trump administration is also expected to emphasize and focus on budget-focused proposals in effort to reduce federal spending while maintaining and enhancing the quality of care. He claims he will lower Healthcare taxes. The Trump campaign also outlines a series of changes aimed at reshaping the healthcare industry and broader economic policies that could become main administration priorities. He talks about 4 main primary buckets: Deregulation, Flexibility & Choice, Accessibility, and National Security. He hopes that these 4 primary priorities will reflect his broader vision of promoting economic growth, individual freedom, and national safety (Hunzinger, Gallagher, Griffin). These healthcare decisions may lead to many changes within the future to come. The question is, however, what will these changes consist of?

Kamala Harris has similar opinions as Joe Biden when talking about Healthcare issues. For example, she wanted to expand Medicare to all Americans and set up a 10-year transition period that would automatically enroll newborns and the uninsured, allowing doctors time to enter the system and help employers choose from federally designated programs. So, she wanted all Americans to obtain health insurance through Medicare plans & programs. Both Biden and Harris consider it a priority to protect reproductive freedoms. Harris declared, “To truly protect reproductive freedoms, we must restore the protections of Roe.” Kamala was the first vice president to visit a clinic run by Planned Parenthood, “and criticized Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance for seemingly backing a national abortion ban and blocking protections for in-vitro fertilization” (Kakatos). Biden and Harris also want to help lower prescription drug costs, and authorized a plan to the Department of Health and Human Services to set new price caps for all drugs sold in the U.S. based on prices charged in other developed countries for the same medications. Kamala would also have  attempted to expand both the effort to lower prescription drug costs, and the negotiations to cover more drugs (Kekatos).

Finances

Donald Trump has led our economy into a very complex situation. From 2017 to 2021, Trump increased the national debt of the United States by roughly $8 trillion. Economists agree that the COVID-19 pandemic had a very large impact on the economy, but even before this pandemic, we could already see an astronomical increase in debt. This dept is currently at a whopping $39 trillion. During Biden's presidency, he only increased the national debt by around $4.3 trillion while leading the charge against the pandemic, which is half the amount compared to Trump's  $8.4 trillion.

Trump’s Controversial Cabinet

Trump and his cabinet have made many important decisions so far, however, the ways they have taken them on may be questionable. Trump has a plan to place tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada and to increase existing tariffs on resources imported by China by an additional 10% on his first day in office. Trump's selection for attorney general in former rep. Matt Gatez, a GOP Firebrand that is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual misconduct and obstruction. This has drawn much criticism from both sides.  And Trump's pick for defense secretary in Pete Hegseth, an Army combat veteran and former Fox News anchor, has also sparked concerns, especially as an investigation into sexual assault allegations against him has been made public. Also, Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for national intelligence, doesn’t have a background in intelligence and has drawn views and criticism for her views on Russia and other adversaries. Despite Trump's rushed efforts to submit all applications, his plan has backfired, leaving many of the applicants replaced.

Conclusion

Many who voted during the 2024 election had been looking forward to economic and healthcare advancements, however, many believe that these advancements may look a bit different compared to what they were imagining. This election has been one of the most influential elections that the United States has ever held, bringing people together and creating barriers between them. The results of this election can make or break the economic status of the United States and the state of our Democracy, which leaves us, the people of this country to decide, what will happen to the minorities of this country?  And what will happen to everyone else?

Works Cited

“The Good, the Bad, and the Unpredictable in Trump's Cabinet.” Yale Insights, 2 December 2024, https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/the-good-the-bad-and-the-unpredictable-in-trumps-cabinet. Accessed 14 January 2025.

Kekatos, Mary. “As Kamala Harris campaigns for presidency, where she stands on health care issues.” ABC News, 22 July 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/kamala-harris-stands-health-care-issues-vies-democratic/story?id=112159503. Accessed 17 January 2025.

Lee, Jasmine C. “Tracking Trump's Cabinet and Staff Picks: Who Has He Nominated So Far?” The New York Times, 26 December 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/politics/trump-administration-cabinet-appointees.html. Accessed 14 January 2025.

Payne, Daniel. “The Trump agenda: Here's what to expect from his second term.” Politico, 6 November 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/06/donald-trump-second-term-policies-00187157. Accessed 14 January 2025.

“President-elect Donald Trump's healthcare agenda.” PwC, 6 November 2024, https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/health-industries/library/election-2024-trump-health-agenda.html. Accessed 14 January 2025.

“President-elect Donald Trump's healthcare agenda.” PwC, 6 November 2024, https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/health-industries/library/election-2024-trump-health-agenda.html. Accessed 17 January 2025.

The United States, as of recently, is well known for its extreme division when it comes to politics. I often find people in other countries on social media talking about how politics in America is an entertaining (sometimes scary) phenomenon  for them to watch. Whether that's Presidential debates, Presidential Tweets, people arguing on the internet, or college kids yelling at each other in the middle of their campus courtyard, people find entertainment in the strong divide that politics bring to the US. I’ve seen people compare American politics to the Comedy Central show South Park: a show well known for its hyperbolic representation of real world topics. But how true are the jokes to reality? And why is there such a great divide in the first place?

An important thing worth mentioning is the fact that the political divide, for a long time, wasn't as strong as it is today. A study carried out by Facing History shows that, “In 1960, 4% of Republicans and 4% of Democrats would be displeased if their son or daughter married someone of the opposite party.” Fifty-nine years later (2019), they took the same poll, and, “45% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans said they would be unhappy if their child married someone of the opposite party.” There's obviously been a great jump in dislike towards the opposing party for Americans, which makes me wonder what could have happened in the almost 60 year gap for such a divide to grow? NBC News has data showing how much each party approves of the president from 1948 to 2020. At the top of the chart in 1948, it shows that 50 percent of the opposite party and 68 percent of the president’s party approved of President Harry Truman. From then to 1976, the numbers on the polls were about the same, but in 1980 Ronald Reagan’s presidency caused a 25 to 80 percent divide between people's approval of the opposite party and people's approval in the president’s party. That number continues to grow, and has another jump during President Obama’s election with an 11 to 83 percent divide of the two different parties approving of the President. This growing division makes me very curious about what ideas these Presidents had that could have caused such a divide in the country.

Ronald Reagan’s political divide was due to his conservative ideas and policies. "For many Americans, this was a time best forgotten," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a longtime civil rights activist. "He was a polarizing figure in Black America. He was hostile to the generally accepted remedies for discrimination. His appointments were of people as equally hostile. I can't think of any Reagan policy that African Americans would embrace" (NBC News, Sharp Divisions Marked Reagan Tenure). One of the many things run by Reagan was the war on drugs in the 80’s and 90’s. Reagan used criminal punishment to go against the crack epidemic in the US. While this movement worked at lowering the use of hard drugs, it didn’t help with the addiction side of things. Rather than treating these addicts to something that might help them like rehab, he would give drug users multi-year jail sentences. “Possession of five grams of crack led to an automatic five-year sentence” (Britannica, War on Drugs). This is an astonishingly small amount of drugs compared to the 500g of cocaine needed for the same sentence. This discrepancy is because coke is more of a “rich man’s drug” which has a long history with rich white people, especially politicians. There were many claims that the war on drugs was a racist agenda due to the “unequal increase of incarceration rates for nonviolent Black drug offenders” (Britannica, War on Drugs). He was also known not to be a man of his word. “Reagan had vowed to protect the "social safety net" of programs for the poor, the disabled and the elderly when he unveiled his economic recovery plan on Feb. 18, 1981. But two years later, White House budget director David A. Stockman said in an interview that the safety-net assurances were, "just a spur-of-the-moment thing that the press office wanted to put out" (NBC News, Sharp Divisions Marked Reagan Tenure). Obama’s campaign was sort of the opposite thing; he went in a more progressive direction and promised change for the country, providing healthcare for more people than ever with the Affordable Care Act. But these weren't the reasons for the political divide. Obama being the first ever Black president led to a large amount of racism towards the 2008 candidate, causing yet another political divide.  Many Republicans went so far as to claim he wasn’t American and was the anti-Christ.

How much of a divide is there in the US’s current political landscape? The past three elections have helped create some of the most divided politics our country has ever experienced. The person with the most blame for this is President Donald Trump, with him being a presidential candidate in the 3 most recent elections and facing different opponents each time. During Trump's first presidential election, there was an 11 to 90 percent divide between the opposing party and his party (NBC News, Here’s what’s driving America’s increasing political polarization). Something that pulls people to Trump is how he doesn't talk how a politician typically talks. He’s been known to insult his opponents; not only their political stand points but also their looks and their character. In a 2016 presidential debate against candidate Hillary Clinton, Clinton states, “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” and Trump responded with, “You’d be in jail.”(CNN, Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton II: The nastiest lines). This being a prime example of his witty personality shows why he may have appealed to people, but this trend makes it seem that people would rather have a comedian than a president. The more conservative thinkers of the US found appeal in his plans and policies for the country. The most controversial of these policies was his plans to strengthen the US’s borders to keep immigrants out, especially at the US/Mexico border. This talking point led to many speculating that Trump is racist towards the latinx community. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that in both of Trump's presidential wins, his opponents were women. This is an important topic considering that conservatives tend to have more “old school” thoughts on leadership roles, specifically that men are better leaders than women. The 1  election out of 3  that Trump didn't win was against another man. 

With the next 4 years being the last term that Trump can legally serve, it makes me wonder what the future of our country's politics will hold. Given that the political divide has only grown since our country first started, and has been on a rapid incline in the past 40 years, it makes it seem that it's only downhill from here. Could the divide grow any larger than it already is, will it shrink, will we get a president that could bring our country together, or will we get a new age of copycats to fill in the pot holes in the right-wing road that Trump already has paved? 

Works Cited

Bernard, Thomas J. “War on Drugs | History & Mass Incarceration.” Britannica, 22 October 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-drugs. Accessed 11 December 2024.

“Here's what's driving America's increasing political polarization.” NBC News, 15 June 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/s-s-driving-americas-increasing-political-polarization-rcna89559. Accessed 11 December 2024.

Lee, Jasmine C. “Tracking Trump's Cabinet and Staff Picks: Who Has He Nominated So Far?” The New York Times, 6 December 2024, 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/politics/trump-administration-cabinet-appointees.html. Accessed 9 December 2024.

Lee, Jasmine C. “Tracking Trump's Cabinet and Staff Picks: Who Has He Nominated So Far?” The New York Times, 11 December 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/politics/trump-administration-cabinet-appointees.html. Accessed 11 December 2024.

Pianin, Eric, and Thomas B. Edsall. “Sharp divisions marked Reagan tenure.” NBC News, 8 June 2004, https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5167791. Accessed 11 December 2024.

“Political Polarization in the United States.” Facing History, 26 August 2024, https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/political-polarization-united-states. Accessed 11 December 2024.