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Thomas Francis

Professor Gilchrist

ENC 2135

February 26, 2017

An Unforgettable 2016: A Famous and Controversial Election

For my research paper, I am analyzing the recent presidential election. The purpose of

this is to look at all the controversies, reactions, and coverage that make this one of the most

famous elections in recent decades. The paper focuses on many different topics that are brought

up throughout and after the election. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were both very

controversial throughout the whole process and there are many memorable moments that I look

to talk about.

The events leading up to the outcome of the 2016 presidential election were very

controversial for both candidates. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went through lots of

controversial situations throughout their presidential run. One controversy surrounding Hillary

Clinton was when she was investigated for sending work related material that is supposed to be

very, very private from her personal, private email. All political figures are supposed to send

work related emails through a private, government server. Nick Summers, a writer for a website

called Engadget, writes:

Her privately-controlled email address, first revealed by the New York Times, is an

issue because she used it for all of her work-related correspondence. Under

federal law, emails sent and received by officials are supposed to be archived so

that oversight committees, historians and the press can examine them Clinton is
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undoubtedly keen to get this whole episode behind her, but until the messages are

released, the criticism surrounding her actions and the content of the emails is

unlikely to subside.

This controversy Hillary Clinton experienced definitely had many people in the U.S.

change their views about her and negatively affected her number of voters. Democrats,

republicans, and all sorts of people changed their views on her due to this. The same can be said

for Donald Trump.

The other candidate, Donald Trump, had some controversies of his own. These problems

were definitely part of the reason many people dislike Trump. Donald Trump is an active person

on Twitter and definitely likes to voice his opinion on things. Many people are always upset

with some of his tweets. One of these tweets that sparked a controversy was based upon Trump

talking about nuclear capabilities. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted in December that the

United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability and later told a

television host that he would outmatch and outlast other potential competitors in a nuclear

arms race. (Reif). This tweet angered many people because they do not want to already be

thinking about nuclear bombs and the making of more. It also upset people because war

shouldnt be the major concern. Trump has also been ridiculed for being harsh to different

ethnicities which is against religious belief:

Yet Donald Trump has put noticeably little effort into branding himself as

a religious candidate, even incurring condemnations of his un-Christian

language and policy positions from faith leaders. In particular, his harsh,
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unwelcoming stance on Mexicans and Muslims has been commonly viewed as

contrary to the spirit of the gospel. (Jung, Paragraph 1)

Trump is viewed as by some as an anti-religious candidate because of the things he says

and does. People think because he is so blunt about people that it means he has no religion or

doesnt praise anyone. Going off these things, people greatly criticize Trumps campaign

because he wants to build a wall on the 2,000-mile Mexico-U.S. border. (Martin, Paragraph 1).

People sadly get confused and rate Trump just on how his personality is. These people that view

Trump in that manner should take into effect that it is just a personality and he became that way

through his professional business career. You have to have a stern and realistic personality when

you are a CEO of a billionaire corporation.

So, as one can see, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had issues and controversies

throughout their presidential campaigns. These problems were very popular in the news world.

So, these issues and controversies both demonstrate that the 2016 presidential election is one of

the most famous in recent decades. When well known people are being looked at for

controversies, it only makes them more famous.

Many people were extremely surprised that Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton. Saying

this, it was almost as contentious as the election where the controversial recount of presidential

votes in Florida... handed the contested 2000 election to George W. Bush over Al Gore. (Hasen,

Paragraph 1). The George Bush and Al Gore election went down to the wire which the recent

election did as well. Many people thought that the businessman and celebrity would not actually

win the presidency. I mean, even the economy was surprised. Economists have said that the

2016 presidential election is dividing the stock market. Although all companies face ongoing
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uncertainty, the 2016 US election outcome is likely to divide the stock market into losing

(technology and utilities) and winning sectors (health care, oil and gas, real estate, defense,

financials and consumer goods and services). Judging by the campaign promises, the best-

performing companies are generally those that will gain directly from Trump's proposals

revolving around rising infrastructure spending, renegotiating trade agreements, loosening

financial regulation, easing restrictions on energy production, and repealing Obamacare.

(Selmi). So after this election, there were many different economic outcomes as well. As you

can see from the latest quote, different sectors of the stock market fluctuated and some sectors

became better and some became worse. In the beginning stages of voting, Hillary Clinton started

to pull away with the votes, but, Donald Trump would later make head way and finish with a

very strong outcome. Donald Trump finished with many more electoral votes, which blew away

the American populous. Donald J. Trump won the Electoral College with 304 votes compared

to 227 votes for Hillary Clinton. Seven electors voted for someone other than their partys

candidate. (NYTimes). Donald Trump finished with 34 more votes than he needed to win the

presidency. The overall amount needed to win the election was 270, which he surpassed. It is

surprising too because Hillary Clinton fell way short with only obtaining 227. Many thought

Hillary would beat Donald in the electoral votes part of the election.

Since Donald Trump has won the election, he has been portrayed by the media pretty

poorly. Many different sources, have been bombarding Trump with negative news about him

that in turn, makes him look bad. Many of these sources are very famous news broadcasts,

blogs, magazines, and much more. New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni attacked

Trump's character in an article discussing his unlikely appeal with evangelical Christian voters.

He wrote:
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He just about runs the table on the seven deadly sins. He personifies greed,

embodies pride, radiates lust. Wrath is covered by his anti-immigrant, anti-'losers'

rants, and if we interpret gluttony to include big buildings and not just Big Macs,

hes a glutton through and through. That leaves envy and sloth. Im betting that he

harbors plenty of the former, though Ill concede that he exhibits none of the

latter. (Coyle)

See, a well-known New York Times columnist voices his own opinion towards Trump which is

trying to appeal to Christians. This a religious group that has a great number of voters that are

for Trump so it is obvious this columnist is trying to divide this group. Most media sources now

a day will have something about Trump that is bad, rather than good. This negative media

coverage can also be viewed as a positive for Trump throughout his presidential campaign and

presidency. For example, Trump said, Ive gotten so much free advertising, its like nothing Id

have expected. When you look at cable television, a lot of the programs are 100 percent Trump,

so why would you need more Trump during the commercial breaks? (Coyle). Another example

of this being a positive is that because of Democrats, a less hysterical and emotionally-driven

reaction to Trumps campaign would have provided a sounder basis for defeating him. (Steff,

Paragraph 1). All these media outlets are talking about him so much that his name is even more

popular, which can be a negative or a positive. The media coverage can be a positive towards

Trump because it helped him get nominated and win the election. Trump appeared to have

played the media expertly, with a combination of staged and unscheduled appearances and a

vigorous social media presence. (Lawrence Paragraph 2). The uses of things such as twitter and

the constant media coverage helps make Trumps name more popular and in the end helped him
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in the election. So based off all this information, it can be seen how the different parts of the

media have both positively and negatively affected Trumps political campaign.

Other than the media, famous people have been trying to use their stardom to ridicule

Trump. His opponents use their celebrity status to publically expose their political ideas in a

sense that lots of people will see it. This could also make so called normal people reevaluate

how they view Trump just based off of what some of their favorite celebrities think. One of

Donald Trumps most outspoken opponents is no other than the Terminator himself, Arnold

Schwarzenegger. Arnold is not just an actor though; he also is a politician so his opinion can

seem much more important than just simply a celebrities input. I mean the two men shouldnt

have the same political ideas anyway because Schwarzenegger is a Democrat while Trump is a

Republican. Arnold has opposed Trumps ideas such as the travel ban and can be shown

showing his dislike for him by saying things like, Dont get into a stinking contest with a

skunk. (Real). Obviously the comments made towards Trump in this situation were not meant

to be taken kindly and show the level of animosity between the two men. This is just one simple

situation where Trump has been ridiculed by a famous person. Dozens and dozens of others

have also voiced their opinion in hopes of ruining Trumps presidential name.

The overall reaction by America after the recent presidential election was that of surprise.

Donald Trump ended up defeating Hillary Clinton for the title of President of the United States in

a close, hard fought election. Almost every person following the presidential race thought that

the democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, had the election in her hands. They were very wrong

though, Trump ended up victorious.

This presidential election is one of the most famous presidential elections in recent

decades, especially due to all the different controversies surrounding the two candidates. The
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main reason the recent presidential election is one of the most famous elections in recent decades

is because you have a celebrity businessman, Trump, versus a woman whose whole political

career is surrounded by controversy and problems, Clinton. It can simply state that on one end

you have a celebrity personality and on the other you have a woman thats life has been about

building her credentials to run for president. (Elovitz, Paragraph 1). Many Americans had no

clue how Trump had won, and their reactions are mixed. There are many people who are very

pleased with the outcome of Trump winning, but there is also a huge population of people who

are extremely upset with it. Many of the pleased individuals are people who fall under the

category of being considered a Jacksonian. This is because trumps political is similar to

Jacksonians because Trump put America first. (Jones, Paragraph 5). Patriotism is believed

to be back basically. Although, many media outlets have been portraying Trump harshly which

is no surprise. This is because the media doesnt like how Donald Trump portrays himself and

the things he says. Also, many famous individuals, such as athletes and celebrities, have used

their stardom to criticize Donald Trump or place their input into the recent election. The overall

reactions to Donald Trump winning the recent election are very interesting because there are so

many different opinions. Saying these ideas, the goal of this research paper is to look at

reactions, controversies, and how this election is one of the most famous in decades.
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Works Cited

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2017.

Cindy, Jung. "The Trump Exception: Christian Morals and the Presidency." Harvard

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Martin, Philip. "Trump and U.S. Immigration Policy." California Agriculture, vol. 71, no. 1, Jan-

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Steff, Reuben. "The Audacity of Trump: How He Won and What We Missed." New Zealand

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