As you all probably know, on November 8, 2016, the citizens of the United States of America voted for whom they saw fit to lead their country. As the dust cleared the next day, in an unexpected result, Donald J. Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 Presidential Election. PantherNation got the responses of the ISB community on this certainly shocking outcome.

Ever since I was young, I have always wanted to live in America. I loved the amount of diversity and openness there. I loved the freedom. But now I am terrified for everyone in America. Trump is a hypocrite, homophobic, narcissist, misogynist, sexist, racist and a lair. He belittles women and treats them as they were an object. Hopefully I will wake up from this nightmare.

-Pam Temcharoen (10)

I was very surprised. From what I have heard, everyone thought that Hillary would win. In my opinion, Trump won fair and square, but he has just run a really controversial campaign. I am just hoping that he manages to be a good president for the American people and the world.

-Tres Huang (10)

I think this year’s election was definately shocking, I am unbelievably disappointed that the United States could vote for such a person. However, the people have spoken, and at the end of the day there is not much we can do. My opinion overall is that Hillary has been working her whole life towards this and the fact that trump came along with all these crazy accusations, and still won, astonishes me.

-Xanthe Schaub (10)

I am very relieved that Donald Trump won the election. I believe he will be a very strong president for the United States. I am also very glad that, so far, it seems like there will be a very smooth transition of power between President Barak Obama and President Elect Donald Trump.

                                                                  – Adam Scherrer (10)

My first reaction was first angry and surprised. I did not want a racist, sexist, and ignorant president. But neither candidate was a good option because regardless of who would win, there would still be riots and complaints. My second reaction was calm, because I will have to trust that Trump will make the right decisions. I just hope that the things he said were just to get attention from everyone.

                                                                   -Nathan Winkles (11)

The only thing I can really say is that I feel like America has, quite simply, entered one of the darkest times in recent memory.

– Volk Tanglertsumpun (11)

After every election, there is always a group of people who are disappointed, and a group of people who are ecstatic. Unfortunately I belong to the former group, but because this is the reality Americans must accept for the next four years, we owe it to Trump to at least give him a chance. If he fails as a president, the whole country fails as well, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt, and I genuinely hope he will be a good president for us.

-Pim Singhatiraj (12)

I felt like no one was qualified to run, both choices were bad. People tend to think in small scales and ignore the fact that a choice somewhere does impact the rest of us. That is why, all the negative feelings set aside, I felt disappointed with how ignorant our society has turned out to be. The election was just more wasted time to hinder progress.

-Sorn Keadsiri (12)

I was just really shocked that so many people would vote for a bill informed, racist, and misogynist candidate. However, I realized that many people were just voting for change – voting against the current system, which was represented by Hillary Clinton. Things were not helped by the fact that Russian hackers shared emails from the Democratic National Committee in from the Clinton foundation with WikiLeaks. [It is] a pity, because Hillary Clinton is one of the smartest, dedicated, and effective public servants, but unfortunately she was on the wrong side of change.

– Sarah du Pont (12)

Following the election, it unfortunately seems as though the divide between the two political powerhouses, the Democrats and Republicans, are further apart than ever. Protests and riots ensued directly after Trump was declared president-elect, while both parties are further fanning the flame by hurling inflammatory insults at each other in real life and on social media.

Hopefully, Donald Trump can unite his fractured country by reaching out to everyone; it is the least he can do after such a controversial campaign. If he manages to do this, the United States can finally go forward and be a country united under one common interest: to improve the lives of not only Americans but humans all over the world.

Poon Singhatiraj