“I think that he fucking sucks…”
The day has finally come. Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, and the first President of colour, has left office after two terms, and the candidate many feared to be the dystopian nightmare they couldn’t possibly think would become a reality, has been sworn in as the 45th leader of the United States.
Donald John Trump, the man who once claimed that if his daughter were not his daughter, her would date her (creepy, I know), that the Mexicans who enter the United States are bringing “drugs”, “crime” and are “rapists”, and openly bragged about sexually assaulting women, or more specifically grabbing them “by the pussy”, has shocked onlookers by beating the odds and becoming the President of the most powerful nation in the world.
Much of the coverage in the UK has been unanimous in its distaste for our American cousins’ pick for President, with that distaste seemingly stronger among younger generations in the UK. But what do our young American counterparts think of their new President? Do they feel as strongly about Trump as we do? Would they have preferred Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders? What do they think of politics in the United States full stop?
While in Miami at the end of 2016, I asked young Americans for their thoughts and got Vicky Grout to shoot portraits of those who gave their opinions. It makes for interesting reading, and provides hope that, regardless of how bad the world seems to be right now, we can look to young people to bring us hope in the darkest and Trump-est of times.
Interviews by Alex Ropes.
Photography by Vicky Grout.
Ok, we’ll start off with your name?
Tyler.
And how old are you?
15.
Obviously you’re not old enough to vote, if you were old enough, would you have voted?
Most likely.
Why most likely and not definitely?
Cos I’m lazy, and probably wouldn’t have got my paper work through. But most likely would have so then I would have.
And if you had voted, who would you have voted for?
Hillary, definitely.
And why would you have voted for Hillary?
Um, she may not be the best person ever, in light of the public or whatever but she has done good things for America. They always bring up the emails, they’re not that big, I know why she got in trouble for the emails, it was because she is a federal employee and had to have 2 phones but only used 1. You shouldn’t really be penalised by that too much. That’s the only thing they could really bring up about her. And it would have just been awesome to have a women president finally.
So finally, what do you think of your president elect, Donald Trump?
I think that he fucking sucks, but I don’t think he is as bad as people are like freaking out to be. Like yeah he sucks but it’s not gonna be the end of America, the issue is he’s making it OK for other people to be terrible people and for other people to suck. So that’s it, I hate him yeah.
Good to meet you bro. What’s your name?
My name is Aldo.
And how old are you?
I’m 14.
Obviously you’re not old enough to vote, but if you were, would you have voted?
I would.
And who would you have voted for?
Um Hillary, just so there would be one less vote for Trump.
I was gonna say why would you have voted for Hillary, just so there would be one less vote for Trump?
Yeah every vote counts, but not with this campaign.
If you only would have voted for Hillary so that is wasn’t a vote for Trump then it doesn’t sound like you’re too convinced by Hillary either?
I mean she has her pros and cons, but she is the choice I would go with.
What do you think of your president elect, Donald Trump?
I think he humiliates a lot of people and has no respect to women, or anybody in general. And that like, his views on torture, I don’t support them along with many other things. Those are the main points.
Just out of interest as well, how do you feel as an ethnic minority with Donald Trump as your president?
Yeah you see one day after his election, everybody is like being racist towards everybody, like a conscious separating the Hispanics and the whites. They were making jokes about me because I’m Mexican and Muslims were getting called out for like wearing Hijabs.
That’s mad…
Ok to start off, what’s your name?
My name is Phoenix James.
And how old are you?
Uh, 14.
So you’re not old enough to vote, but if you were old enough to vote would you have voted?
Yeah, yeah.
Who would you have voted for?
Hillary, because she’s the better of two, I guess.
Sounds like you’re not entirely convinced by Hillary either though.
Nah, she committed a federal crime so that’s not cool.
So what do you think of your president elect Donald Trump?
Uh…
You can say whatever you want.
I think he’s a racist, and he thinks too big of himself, he needs to like dial it down a little bit and actually focus on what’s important. And just be our president and not this flamboyant, racist guy who just wants to insult everybody. That’s it.
Alright so let’s start with your name.
My names Karson Kurtz.
And how old are you?
I’m 25.
Are you from the area?
Yeah I’m from North Florida, but I lived in Miami 2 years ago and then I moved out for a year and now I’m back.
Did you vote in the election?
Yeah
Who did you vote for?
I voted for Hillary.
Why did you vote for Hillary?
Uh because Trumps like a hobo human being. It’s scary, he doesn’t like saying anything, he just rambles and he just focusses on shit that brings people apart instead of shit that actually brings people together.
Out of interest did you want to vote for Hillary, was she the candidate of your choice?
Nah it was just like a vote against Hillary is a vote for Trump in my mind, I think she’s the lesser of two evils at least like with her nothing will change but with Trump it’s like, shits gonna pop off.
And you want shit to pop off?
Not really, I’ve got a lot of people who are probably gonna be fucked over with Trump in presidency. The US doesn’t have a lot of problems right now but the problems that we do have are only gonna get worse with Trump, as far as like internal problems. We have a shit tonne of external problems that are gonna get way worse. But I mean I feel like we’re gonna see prisons increase, we’re gonna see the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, we’re gonna see harsher penalties on all drug crimes. We’re gonna see more intense prison sentences, private prisons, we’re gonna see companies doing whatever the fuck they want. And we’re just gonna see the rich go unchecked. On top of that if Trump wasn’t bad enough, you’ve got Pence as his vice president so like every form of evil that Trump is, he’s like missing a big part of it and Pence just fills that right in. So I feel that it’s just like a shit show. There’s no checks and balances right now either.
Well you’ve kind of answered it already, but I’ll ask anyway. What do you think of Donald Trump?
Um I think he’s somebody who has a history of being a wealthy business man, but if you look at the money that he started out with in the 80’s compared to what he has now, with inflation he should have 3 times as much, so he’s just a phoney who is really good at PR and that election has proven it. I mean I want to stay hopeful and be like maybe he’ll realise this shit, but I don’t really see that happening. I mean I’m thinking about leaving the US.
To go where?
I want to go to Berlin. Have you ever been?
Yeah I’ve just come back, 2 weeks ago.
It’s dope right.
Yeah, I’m from London and I would consider moving there.
It’s affordable
Yeh man, London is pretty unaffordable for young people these days. Berlin isn’t.
First off let’s just get your name.
Rod.
And you’re from Miami yeah?
Yeah, I don’t know how snow looks!
And how old are you?
29.
Did you vote in the last election?
I voted for her, I voted for Hillary.
Why did you vote for Hillary?
Well I voted for Hillary because my mum would kill me if I didn’t! But also because I’m more for the Democratic party.
What do you think of your President elect?
Man honestly?
Be as open as you want
I’m still in the same position with any president, my mum said times was hard with Clinton in the office the first time, and I don’t feel like things got any better in my opinion. The only thing I feel that we could do is just try to keep moving forward and keep pushing, it might be baby steps but eventually it’ll happen. It might just take people to wake up and realise that our next president will really have to boss up over the next 4 years. You gotta take steps back to move forward.
You said your Mum said things were hard since Clinton and that things haven’t really changed, what do you think that means for politics?
I mean, Hillary won the popular vote but they made sure Donald won the real vote, so who’s really in control, so yeah times been hard, that’s how I look at it.
Thanks for that, bro.
Yo, so let’s start with the obvious. What’s your name?
My names Amelia Howard.
And how old are you?
I am 31.
OK cool, did you vote in the last election?
Actually I voted for the candidate that did not get represented in our election. Which is a huge problem in the US, because the media controls a lot of things that happen here. I voted for Jill Stein, she was with the Green party because she was the only one closest to representing the voice of what I had to say. About the economy here in the states and about the things that are happening that definitely need to change, she was the closest candidate, but to be quite frank, I don’t like how our voting system is set up for voting a person should voting on constitutions on the laws, like we should have more say in that. A lot of people lobby particularly towards these politicians to push their agenda, and the people’s voices don’t get heard. So this is more of a student council party rather than an actual political party that represents the people.
If Bernie Sanders was the Democratic candidate, would you have voted for him?
If it was Bernie Sanders, absolutely because I felt that he would have been the strongest and the smartest, but the Democratic national convention pushed Hillary for obvious reasons, that I don’t want to get involved in. Things are real tight here. I think he would have won the DNC had they chosen him, and he probably would be president now, but now we are facing Trump so we are just stuck with that decision for the next four years.
What do you think of your president elect?
Shit, can I say that?
You can say whatever you like…
The guy can piss off, for what he is, there are no words to describe this man, other than the fact I’m gonna have to figure out a solution. But I think this is also a wake up call to America, to be more involved in politics, be more involved in the creation and following through with our constitution how it was laid out by our forefathers. But more importantly not to sit back and let someone who is fickle, one minute he says this, then next minute there’s a wall then there’s no wall, then I’m for you, then I’m against you. He has his own agenda of what he’s going to try and push because nobody can pay him off, he doesn’t need money. We will see if anything will really change, but to be quite frank, I’m not really for anything he has to push, other than to clear out congress and the lobbyists that are there who are pushing their agenda rather than thinking for the people. This is a money game.
Thank you very much, Amelia.
Ok cool, so let’s start with your names.
My names Summer, and I’m Augustina.
And how old are you guys?
We’re 16
OK so you’re not old enough to vote are you?
Augustina: No, I wish I was.
You wish you were?
Augustina: Yeah
Why?
Augustina: Um first of all, I think that Donald Trump is an asshole, too be honest, like a complete asshole. I think he’s gonna take our country ten steps back instead of forward. And you know we were almost there with a women president. We had a black president, and I think he just took our country back. He’s gonna make it worse for women, children, minorities.
Summer: I agree with her, especially minorities, he wants to deport people, which is like horrible to me.
Augustina: Yeah, my Dad isn’t from here you know? Not even because of that, I feel that immigrants play a huge role in like society. You can’t just deport people. A lot of people aren’t gonna want to work for what immigrants work for right now.
If you could have voted who would you have voted for?
Augustina: Hillary.
Summer: Hillary Clinton I guess.
You guess?
Augustina: I’m positive.
Summer: Nah I would have voted for Hillary, but I wish there was another option.
Who would that other option have been for you? If you were old enough would you have voted for Bernie Sanders?
Summer: No I would have voted for Hillary over Bernie, but I do think Bernie was a nice guy.
You’ve kinda already answered it I guess, but what do you think of your new president elect, Donald Trump?
Augustina: I think that he’s going to get us nowhere except further from where we are trying to be as an independent country.
How about you?
Summer: Same thing, I think he’s a piece of shit, that’s all I think.
OK cool, thanks a lot for your time ladies.
