It’s been a year since the world sat in stunned disbelief as Donald Trump, widely considered one of the least qualified candidates for President, beat Hillary Clinton, widely considered one of the most qualified candidates for President, and walked up on stage as the 45th President of the United States of America. While a section of America was jubilant, another section (the majority who did not vote for him) struggled to cope; they drank away their despair, while others cried for days.
In a scandal-wracked year, the US President’s decision to pull America out of the Paris Climate Agreement, his ban on transgender people in the military, and his Muslim ban all featured as landmark events.
Has America come to grips with their new President yet?
The Boston Scream Party
According to Huffington Post, hundreds of Bostonians decided cope with the anniversary... by meeting up in a public space and screaming helplessly into the sky. No kidding, the event referred to on social media as ‘Scream into the Void’, was started by ‘Daily Show’ host John Oliver back in 2015, which encouraged people to vent their hateful, angry thoughts on a website... and have it then deleted forever. A kind of frustration-purge, if you will.
You simply type whatever awful thing you’re thinking, hit the button at the bottom of the page and the message will be deleted forever. It’s brilliant.John Oliver had said back then, as reported by Huffington Post.
Although the event, which has now been deleted off Facebook and other social media sites, was initially to be held in Boston only, it soon spread to other cities within the United States like Connecticut and even Texas. According to GQ, over 4,000 people have RSVP’d for the event and 33,000 more declared ‘interest’ in attending.
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“Me on Election Day, Then and Now”
A viral hashtag has also taken root for ‘One Year of Trump’ - ‘Me on Election Day 2016 vs. Me on Election Day 2017’. Americans are confessing the toll the last year has taken on them... mentally, emotionally, and physically.
It’s been a rough one year for Americans, by the looks of it.
And it continues.
‘Welcome to Kenya’
Remember the time Donald Trump had ‘suggested’ that former President Barrack Obama wasn’t born in the United States (he was born in Hawaii) and was in fact an ‘immigrant’? Apparently Hawaiians haven’t forgiven him for that.
So when Trump decided to visit there four days before his presidential anniversary as a pit-stop on his way to Asia, reports The Independent, they held up posters saying ‘Welcome to Kenya’. Ouch!
Woman Flips the Bird at Cavalcade
A woman in Virginia was cycling along a road through which Donald Trump just happened to be passing through, tight security and cavalcade in tow. According to The Guardian, the woman, in a moment of anger, showed him the finger.
He was passing by and my blood just started to boil. I’m thinking, DACA recipients are getting kicked out. He pulled ads for open enrollment in Obamacare. Only one third of Puerto Rico has power. I’m thinking, he’s at the damn golf course again. I flipped off the motorcade a number of times.Juli Briskman, the woman in question, told the Huffington Post
In a democracy, the freedom of speech and expression is a person’s constitutional right. That is why Juli was soon told that she was getting fired from her job for having ‘obscene things’ in connection with her making the rounds on social media, reports The Guardian.
While leaving the Virginia Golf Club where he had been shown the finger, Trump also passed a pedestrian who gave a vigorous thumbs-down gesture and a woman, who had been standing outside the entrance to the golf club, holding a sign saying “Impeach”.
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Eminem Takes the Stage
‘Rap God’ Eminem trashed President Donald Trump in a music video that was played at the BET Hip Hop Awards last month, reports The New York Times. In it, he accused the president of racism, hypocrisy, disrespect of military veterans and more in almost five minutes of furious freestyle rap. He also lashed out against the President’s seemingly less than satisfactory responses to the violence in Charlottesville, the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria and the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Name-dropping Obama, Hillary Clinton and Colin Kaepernick, Eminem then mentioned his fans and ripped out on the Trump-supporting fraction of them.
The lyrics ran: And any fan of mine/who’s a supporter of his/I’m drawing in the sand a line/you’re either for or against/and if you can’t decide/who you like more and you’re split/on who you should stand beside/I’ll do it for you with this,” he raps, before giving the middle finger to the camera.
The Twitter President Exiled... for 11 Minutes
For eleven minutes last week, the world felt the absence of Donald Trump’s tweets, because a Twitter employee on his last day with the company, decided to exit with a bang by deleting Trump’s profile.
While he became the unsung hero in the US for those who have an axe to grind with Trump, Trump himself viewed the temporary ban from his favourite social media outlet as evidence that “the word must finally be getting out”. A positive spin on it, at least!
It has evidently been a roller-coaster year for Americans. With Trump’s campaign currently under investigation by the the FBI, it’s anyone’s guess whether the controversial US President will make it to another anniversary.
Also Read:
Expressing Empathy Remains a Challenge for Trump
Twitter Employee Shuts Down Trump’s Account on Last Day of Work
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